Fires and Property Loss for Incendiary and Suspicious Fires and Civilian Fire Deaths and Injuries by Selected Property Type statistics



ITEM	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991		1992		1993	1994		1995	1996	1997	1998


NUMBER (1,000)

Structure fires, total	1,065	1,028	946	869	848	860	800	758	745	688	624	640		638		621	614		574	578	552	517
Structure fires of incendiary
or suspicious origin	146	155	129	122	111	117	111	105	100	97	97	98		94		85	86		91	85	78	76

Fires of incendiary origin	92	88	77	72	66	69	66	66	63	59	58	62		58		54	53		58	52	52	47
Fires of suspicious origin	54	67	52	50	45	48	39	39	37	38	39	36		36		31	33		33	33	26	29

PROPERTY LOSS ¹
(mil. dol.)
Structure fires, total	5,454	5,976	5,731	5,826	5,891	6,437	5,837	6,226	7,188	7,518	6,713	8,320		6,957		7,406	6,867		7,620	7,933	7,087	6,717
Structure fires of incendiary
or suspicious origin	1,760	1,658	1,604	1,421	1,417	1,670	1,677	1,590	1,594	1,558	1,394	1,531		1,999		2,351	1,447		1,647	1,405	1,309	1,249

Fires of incendiary origin	1,158	1,142	1,088	946	883	1,069	1,162	1,109	1,022	1,057	875	1,072	³	1,493	⁴	1,901	964	⁵	1,116	897	802	816
Fires of suspicious origin	602	516	516	475	534	601	515	481	572	501	519	459		506		450	483		531	508	507	433

CIVILIAN FIRE DEATHS
Deaths, total ².	6,505	6,700	6,020	5,920	5,240	6,185	5,850	5,810	6,215	5,410	5,195	4,465		4,730		4,635	4,275		4,585	4,990	4,050	4,035

Residential property	5,446	5,540	4,940	4,820	4,240	5,025	4,770	4,660	5,065	4,435	4,115	3,575		3,765		3,825	3,465		3,695	4,080	3,390	3,250

One- and two-family
dwellings..	4,175	4,430	3,960	3,825	3,290	4,020	4,005	3,780	4,125	3,545	3,370	2,905		3,160		3,035	2,785		3,035	3,470	2,700	2,775
Apartments	1,025	970	860	845	785	865	650	790	830	790	680	595		545		685	640		605	565	660	445
Vehicles.	740	840	695	725	630	825	735	805	865	685	695	605		730		595	630		535	710	480	575

CIVILIAN FIRE INJURIES
Injuries, total ²	30,200	30,450	30,525	31,275	28,125	28,425	26,825	28,215	30,800	28,250	28,600	29,375		28,700		30,475	27,250		25,775	25,550	23,750	23,100
Residential property	21,000	20,375	21,100	21,450	19,275	19,825	19,025	20,440	22,600	20,750	20,650	21,850		21,600		22,600	20,025		19,125	19,300	17,775	17,175

One- and two-family
dwellings..	16,100	14,875	15,750	16,450	15,100	15,250	14,650	15,200	17,125	15,225	15,250	15,600		15,275		15,700	14,000		13,450	13,700	12,300	11,800
Apartments	3,600	4,250	4,700	4,300	3,650	3,925	3,925	4,765	4,950	5,050	4,975	5,675		5,825		6,300	5,475		5,200	5,175	5,000	5,000
Vehicles.	4,075	3,400	3,425	3,800	3,600	3,600	3,125	3,150	2,950	3,025	3,350	3,050		3,000		2,675	2,625		2,525	2,225	2,125	2,225

1 Direct property loss only..
2 Includes other not shown separately.
3 Includes estimated loss of $567 million from the April 1992 civil disturbance in Los Angeles, CA.
4 Includes fire losses that occurred during the wildfires in California and the World Trade Center bombing in New York city, which resulted in combined estimated losses of $1.039 billion.
5 Includes $135 in property loss that occurred in the explosion and fire in the federal office building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.

Source: National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA, "1998 U.S. Fire Loss", NFPA Journal, September 1999, and prior issues, (copyright 1999).

http://www.nfpa.org/

* TERMS

Civilian: a civilian is anyone who isn't a firefighter, including public service personnel, such as police officers; civil defense staff; nonfire service medical personnel; and utility company employees.

Death: To be covered in this survey, death must be the result of an injury that occreed as a direct result of a fire that becomes fatal within one year.

Fire: A fire is any instance of uncontrolled burning, including combustion explosions and fires that are out when the fire department arrives. For the purposes of the survey, the following are excluded: authorized and unauthorized controlled burning, overpressure ruptures without combustion, mutual-aid responses, smoke scares, and hazardous responses such as oil spills.

Incendiary: A legal decision or physical evidence that indicates that a fire was deliberately set.

Injury: An injury is any physical damage a person suffers as a direct result of fire that requires, or should require, treatment by a medical practitioner within one year of the incident, regardless of whetehr treatment was actually received. It also includes physical damage that results in at least one day of restricted activity immediately after the fire. Examples of injuries include smoke inhalation, burns, wounds or punctures, fractures, heart attacks, strains and sprains.

Property damage: This includes all forms of direct loss to contents, structures, machinery, vehicles, vegetation, or anything else involved in a fire. Not covered are indirect losses, such as business interruption or tempory shelter provisions.

Structure: A structure is an assembly of materials forming a construction for occupancy or for some use that serves a specific purpose. A building is a type of structure, as are open platforms, bridges, roof assemblies over open storage or process areas, tents, air-suppported structures, and grandstands.

Suspicious: A fire is deemed suspicious when circumstances, such as multiple ignitions, indicate that it may have been deliberately set, or when no accidental or natural ignition factor could be found.

Vehicles, Highway and Other: Highway vehicles include those designed to operate normally on highways, such as cars, motorcycles, buses, trucks, and trailers. Other vehicles, which are included, are trains, boats and ships, aircraft, and farm and construction vehicles. Not included are mobile homes on foundations. Reported casualties and property loss in vehicles should be the direct result of fire only. *

http://www.allcountries.org/uscensus/379_fires_and_property_loss_for_incendiary.html

These tables are based on figures supplied by the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce and are subject to revision by the Census Bureau.

Copyright © 2006 Photius Coutsoukis and Information Technology Associates, all rights reserved.