- Author
- Badger, S. G.
- Title
- Large-Loss Fires in the United States, 2003.
- Coporate
- National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA
- Keywords
- fire losses | fire statistics | costs | fire detection | fire suppression | classifications | fire protection | case histories | damage
- Abstract
- Each year, NFPA reports on large fire and explosion losses in the United States, defined as events that resulted in property damage of at least $5 million. In 2003, fire departments in the United States responded to 1,584,500 fires. These fires caused an estimated loss of $12.3 billion. Many of them were small with little or no property damage reported; however, 46 resulted in losses of $5 million or more each. Together, these large-loss fires resulted in $ 2,759 million in direct property loss, killed 33 civilians and one firefighter, and injured 295 firefighters and civilians. Despite the fact that these fires accounted for only 0.003 percent of all the fires estimated to have occurred in the United States last year, they accounted for 22.4 percent of the total estimated dollar loss. The direct property loss in large-loss fires for 2003 was four times the corresponding figure in 2002, when the loss was $698 million. Even before inflation adjustments, the number of large-loss fires in 2003 was tied as the second lowest total in the 10 years since 1994 (see Table 1 and Figure 1 and Figure 2). The increase in the losses for 2003 are due to two wildland fires in California, where the combined loss was $2,035 million, or 73.8 percent of the total losses. When adjusted for inflation to 1994 dollars, the fires that occurred in 2003 categorized as large-loss (i.e., loss of $5 million in 1994 dollars) drops to 34, with a total adjusted loss of $2,181 million. This is the second lowest number of large-loss fires since 1994. The adjusted loss is the highest in the 10-year period and is 76 percent higher than the 10-year average adjusted loss total. The number of large-loss fires and explosions has been trending downward over the last few years. Losses in these fires are volatile and have shown no consistent trend.