Vacant Residential Building Fires

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. This report is based on 2006 to 2008 data from the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS). According to the report, an estimated 28,000 vacant residential building fires occur annually in the U.S., resulting in an estimated average of 45 deaths, 225 injuries, and $900 million in property loss. Vacant residential fires are considered part of the residential fire problem as they comprise approximately 7 percent of residential building fires. In addition, intentional is the leading cause of vacant residential building fires which are more prevalent in July (9 percent), due in part to an increase in intentional fires on July 4 and 5. Finally, almost all vacant residential building fires are non-confined and half spread to involve the entire building. Charts and tables.

This report is designed to arm the fire service and others with a statistical overview of the fire problem in the U.S. -- deaths of thousands of Americans each year, injury to tens of thousands, and destruction of billions of dollars in property -- that can motivate corrective action. It can also be used to select priorities and help target fire programs, serve as a model for state or local analyses of fire data, and provide a baseline for evaluating programs. Data was collected from the more than 13,000 fire departments that participate in the National Fire Incident Reporting System, and analyzed. One chapter focuses on deaths and injuries to firefighters.