- Author
- Hall, J. R., Jr.
- Title
- Home Heating Fire Patterns and Trends.
- Coporate
- National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA
- Keywords
- heating | heaters | space heaters | kerosens | stoves | furnaces | fireplaces | chimneys | fire statistics
- Identifiers
- specific home heating devices and components; gas-fueled fixed space heaters; portable kerosene heaters and other liquid-fueled portable space heaters; portable electric space heaters; wood stoves and other solid-fueled fixed space heaters; built-in electric heaters and other fixed electric space heaters; gas furnaces; oil furnaces and other liquid-fueled central heating units; electric-powered central heating units; gas-fueled water heaters; electric powered water heaters; indoor fireplaces (solid-fueled); chimneys supporting solid-fueled equipment; chimney connectors supporting solid-fueled equipment; how national estimates statistics are calculated
- Abstract
- The estimated 54,900 home heating equipment fires in 2001 killed 220 people, the lowest death toll by far in the 22 years studied (1980 through 2001). Home heating fires in 2001 also caused 1,120 civilian injuries and $502 million dollars in direct property damage, all historic lows (after adjusting damage for inflation). All of these estimates refer only to U.S. fires reported to local fire departments. The apparent jump in fire incidents is misleading as it apparently reflects only an increase in reported confined fires that were probably reported as non-fires under the previous, more cumbersome coding system. Portable and fixed space heaters and related equipment (i.e., fireplaces, chimneys, and chimney connectors) accounted for two of every three (66%) home heating fires in 2001 and two of every three (67%) associated deaths. Each of these devices has a higher rate of deaths per million households using them than do the various types of central heating units (i.e., furnaces) or water heaters. (When comparing the risk of fire relative to usage, heat transfer systems such as ducts and hot water piping, chimneys, and connectors, all are counted with the heating equipment they support.)