- Author
-
Ahrens, M.
- Title
- Patterns and Trends of U.S. Fire Losses in 2008.
- Coporate
- National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA
- Report
-
NFPA No. USS47,
September 2009,
19 p.
- Keywords
-
fire losses
|
fire statistics
|
death
|
fire losses
|
fire departments
|
home fires
|
structures
|
medical services
- Abstract
- Projections from NFPA's annual fire department experience data reported in Michael Karter's annual reports on U.S. Fire Loss, particularly the most recent report, are summarized in this analysis. Reported fires and fire deaths have fallen since 1977, the first year of available data. The drop in population-based rates is even sharper. In 2008, home structure fires accounted for 27% of the reported fires. However, these incidents caused 83% of all civilian fire deaths. Vehicle fires accounted for 16% of the reported fires and 11% of the civilian fire deaths. Roughly half (48%) of the reported fires were outside or other non-structure, non-vehicle fires. In 2008, only 6% of all fire department responses were to fires while 62% were medical aid responses.