- Author
- Karter, M. J., Jr.
- Title
- Fire Loss in the United States During 2008.
- Coporate
- National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA
- Report
- NFPA No. FLX08-01, August 2009 (Revised January 2010), 43 p.
- Keywords
- fire statistics | fire losses | fire fatalities | injuries | costs | death | false alarms | fire departments
- Identifiers
- intentional fires; region fire department calls
- Abstract
- U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated 1,451,500 fires. These fires resulted in 3,320 civilian fire fatalities, 16,705 civilian fire injuries and an estimated $15,478,000,000 in direct property loss. (The direct property loss includes the California Wildfires 2008 with an estimated property loss of $1,400,000,000.) There was a civilian fire death every 158 minutes and a civilian fire injury every 31 minutes in 2008. Home fires caused 2,755, or 83%, of the civilian fire deaths. Fires accounted for six percent of the 25,252,500 total calls. Nine percent of the calls were false alarms; sixty-two percent of the calls were for aid such as EMS. This report contains overall statistics from the NFPA survey of fire departments on fires, civilian deaths and injuries, and property damage in 2008. Includes patterns by major property class. Includes patterns by major property class, region and community size as well as information on types of fire department calls and false alarms.