- Author
- National Fire Protection Association
- Title
- Fire Problem. The National Fire Protection Association speaks to The National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control.
- Coporate
- National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA
- Keywords
- research facilities
- Identifiers
- federal involvement toward solving the fire problem; action programs
- Abstract
- The fire problem of the United States may be broadly identified by excessive and unnecessary deaths and human suffering together with heavy economic waste resulting from avoidable fires. Fire fatalites annually are in the order of 12,000. In addition, there are thousands of persons who are seriously injured by fire. This situation is unacceptable since the knowledge necessary to avoid it is available. Direct fire waste of property is estimated at $2.75 billion annually with indirect costs running much higher. To this must be added the cost of all measures taken by the private and public sectors to control fire and ameliorate its effects. This brings us to expenditures that have been estimated in the neighborhood of $8 billion annually. In a word, the fire problem is that too many people die or are injured by fire and that the social and economic losses are an unncessary burden on the American people.