- Author
- Hall, J. R., Jr.
- Title
- Intentional Fires and Arson.
- Coporate
- National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA
- Distribution
- AVAILABLE FROM: NFPA One Stop Data Shop, 1 Batterymarch Park, P.O. Box 9101, Quincy, MA 02269-9101. Telephone: 617-984-7540, Fax: 617-984-7478, Email: osds@nfpa.org. Website: http://www.nfpa.org
- Keywords
- arson | arsonists | firesetters | surveys | statistics | human behavior | human beings | methodology
- Identifiers
- defining arson and intentional fires; firesetters, motives and criminal justice; myths of arson; possible reasons for decline in intentional fires and arson; adopt proven anti-arson programs
- Abstract
- In 2003, an estimated 37,500 intentional structure fires were reported to the NFPA survey. This excludes suspicious fires and any share of unknown cause fires unless those adjustments are made by the fire department before reporting to NFPA. This was the lowest number NFPA has ever recorded. Beginning in 2001, the NFPA annual survey of fire experience reported to U.S. local fire departments eliminated the category called "suspicious fires" and replaced "incendiary" with "intentional" both to correspond with the new coding categories introduced in NFIRS Version 5.0, effective with 1999 data. Property damage and civilian deaths in intentional fires also fell to historic lows ($692 million and 305 deaths). In 2003, the arson offense rate per 100,000 population decreased by 6%, to a new historic low of 30.4. Statistics are available through 2003 on U.S. structure and vehicle fires reported as intentional, but statistics are only available through 2002 on U.S. intentional fires including adjustment for fires reported with cause unknown. Canadian fire statistics are shown through 1999, U.K. fire statistics are available through 2002, and Japanese fire statistics are shown through 2001. In Canada, there has been no consistent trend up or down in total set fires, but the mix has shifted dramatically from incidents they label "arson and suspected arson" to incidents they label "other set fires." In the U.K., there has been a consistent and substantial upward trend in intentional fires, especially for vehicles. In Japan, there has also been a consistent upward trend. In 2002, roughly 630 civilians died in an estimated 68,800 intentionally set U.S. structure fires (including adjustments for unknown cause fires), the second lowest death toll and the lowest fire total for this cause since comparable statistics began in 1980. In 2002, more than 2,000 civilians suffered non-fatal injuries in intentionally set U.S. structure fires, also the lowest injury toll for the cause since comparable statistics began in 1980. In 2002, intentional structure fires resulted in an estimated $1.9 billion in direct property damage. By every measure, the rates of intentional fires or arson offenses, in structures or in vehicles, relative to population, have been substantially decreasing since 1980.