- Author
- Federal Emergency Management Agency
- Title
- School Fires.
- Coporate
- Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington, DC
- Journal
- Topical Fire Research Series, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1-6, August 2007
- Keywords
- schools | fire safety | fire statistics | arson | cooking | heating | firesetters | children | strudents | paper | plastics | wood | fabrics | fire losses
- Identifiers
- loss measures for school structure fires (3-year average, 2003-2005); fires on school properties by month (percent, 3-year average, 2003-2005); fires on school properties by month and type (percent, 3-year average, 2003-2005); fires on school properties by time of day (percent, 3-year average, 2003-2005); causes of school structure fires (percent, 3-year average, 2003-2005); fires on school properties by school type (percent, 3-year average, 2003-2005); leading areas of fire origin of school structure fires by type of school (percent, 3-year average, 2003-2005)
- Abstract
- Using the past 3 years of data, for 2003 to 2005, from the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) database, the yearly national fire loss for fires on nonadult school properties1 is estimated at $85 million. Such losses are the result of an estimated annual average of 14,700 fires that required a fire department response. Fires on school prop-erties caused an average of approximately 100 injuries. No fatalities were reported to NFIRS during this period.2,3 Forty percent of these school-related fires occurred outdoors on school property.4 Trash fires accounted for 36% of these out-side fires, and fires in open fields or woods accounted for an additional 19%. Forty-three percent of fires on school prop-erties, an estimated 6,300 fires, were structure fires.5 Slightly over half of these structure fires were confined to the object where the fire started, such as a small cooking fire (20%) or a fire confined to a trash can (28%). Six percent of fires on school properties were vehicle fires.