Nearly 1.3 million fires needing fire service intervention occurred in the US in 2014, according to latest data from the US Fire Administration (USFA). Fires caused over 3 400 deaths and nearly 16 000 injuries and cost nearly 12 billion US$.
Losses resulting from fires were orders of magnitude higher than those from natural disasters such as floods or tornadoes. Three quarters of fires occurred in homes, and 16% of fire deaths occurred in vehicles.
“Fire in the United States 2005-2014”, 18th Edition, January 2017, USFA and FEMA https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fius18th.pdf and “Fire Risk in 2014”, FEMA Topical Fire Report Series Volume 17, Issue 7/September 2016 https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/v17i7.pdf