Fire Damage Statistics that will blow your mind!

1/5/2021 (Permalink)

According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the top five causes of fires in commercial facilities are issues with cooking equipment, heating units, electrical/lighting issues, smoking materials and intentional fire starting.  

Here’s a brief look at fire damage statistics, courtesy of the NFPA:

Food Services
From 2010-2014 there were an estimated 7,410 fires in food services facilities, which caused annual losses of $165 million in property damage.  Cooking equipment was the root cause of over 60% of those fires with electrical malfunctions the next highest cause.

Retail
On average, 13,570 structure fires in stores and merchant properties each year, resulting in $604 million in property damage.  The average fire damage comes to $73,800 per facility.  Electrical issues are the primary cause of these fires.

Hospitality
Each year the NFPA estimates there are 3,520 hotel/motel fires.  The main source of hotels fires the kitchens.  Whether it’s the individual rooms’ kitchenette or the main kitchen of the hotel, 2 out of every 5 hotel fires start here.  Annual property damage estimates for the hospitality industry are around $84 million.

Education
Education facilities have on average 4,980 structure fires resulting from cooking equipment issues in the cafeterias to intentionally set fires.  These fires cause around $70 million annually.  Seventy percent of educational facilities that have fire losses are nurseries, elementary, middle and high schools. 

Healthcare
5,750 healthcare facilities succumb to fire damage each year, with an astounding $50.4 billion in property damage.  A breakdown of healthcare structure fires show 48% are in nursing homes, 22% in mental health facilities, 20% in hospitals and 11% in doctors offices.

Property Management
While they don’t have information specially for Property Management companies, they do have information about office properties which include several general businesses such as banks, engineering firms, research office and more.  Office property fire damage has an annual estimate of $112 million with the top 3 fire sources being cooking equipment (6%), intentionally set (20%) and electrical/lighting (12%). 

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