Sunday, October 13, 2019

Results of the NFPA 2018 National Fire Experience Survey

Fire truck
Photo by Philip Wyers on Unsplash

An experienced maintenance manager and project engineer, Brian Brecheisen of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, previously held an engineering position at Charter Steel. Throughout his career, Brian Brecheisen has maintained memberships in several industry groups, including the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).

As the nation's leading resource on fire hazards and electrical hazards, NFPA conducts research on fires and their causes as well as fire safety hazards and their solutions. Each year, the organization conducts its National Fire Experience Survey, which provides an estimate of the number and types of fire problems in the United States.

In the September/October 2019 edition of NFPA Journal, the Association released the findings of its 2018 Fire Experience Survey, which estimates that US fire departments responded to 1,318,500 fires in 2018. This estimate is virtually the same as the number in 2017. Of the 1.3 million fires in 2018, an estimated 499,000 were structure fires, which is also the same as in 2017.

In 2018, an estimated $25.6 billion in fire damage occurred. This includes over $12 billion in losses from wildfires, $11.1 billion in structure damage, and $1.4 billion in losses from vehicle fires. Additional info from the 2018 National Fire Experience Survey can be found on the NFPA website, www.nfpa.org.