Fires And Fire Deaths From Almost All Causes Fall By Two-Thirds Since 1980

Fires And Fire Deaths From Almost All Causes Fall By Two-Thirds Since 1980

One of the big problems with measuring progress in averting accidents is that you’re looking for nothing—because nothing happened.

But determined to show how nothing is a big something indeed, Vox’s Bryan Walsh set out to measure America’s progress in preventing fires and fireproofing homes after he himself heard of a fire ripping through a Brooklyn artist’s warehouse.

Deaths by fires have fallen by two-thirds since 1980, lead in part by advances in safety awareness and product safety.

Decades of updated building codes and public safety campaigns have led to the majority of US homes and apartments having smoke detectors—the single best defense against small room fires turning into conflagrations.

About 60% fewer deaths per recorded house fire occur when the house in question has a working smoke detector. Many buildings now have detectors that work as a part of a multi-room system, but battery-operated ones still work exceptionally well.

That 60% becomes 90% when talking about automatic sprinkler systems, which more buildings than ever in the United States now come equipped with. They have also made the leap from commercial, office, or parking buildings to multifamily homes and apartments.

In 2021, the Consumer Product Safety Commission passed a federal regulation that mandated furniture manufacturers to comply with code on smolder-resistant upholstered furniture. This is a major cause of house fires, often in conjunction with cigarettes and wood stoves, and representative of around 17% of the deaths from house fires—according to the CPSC.

In addition to aiding the falling rates of lung cancer, the reduction in smoking habits among Americans have also led to fewer house fires.

“In 1980 there were an estimated 70,800 smoking-related cigarette home fires leading to 1,820 deaths,” Walsh wrote. “By 2016, the number of smoking-related fires had fallen to 16,500.”

According to FEMA, heating and electrical malfunctions, like circuits arcing behind walls, are the least common of the leading causes of home fires, and that’s a result of many products and building code adding failsafe triggers and other features that cause heating to shut off if temperatures get too hot, or currents to cease if arcing is detected.

Heating and electrical-related fires fell by a third between 2010 and 2019.

Cooking is still far and away the most common cause of house fires. If a home or apartment has sprinklers, and smoke detectors, and some of the other features mentioned in Walsh’s article, then the best thing you can do to avoid home fires is to pay attention in the kitchen.

Common causes of fires in kitchens include grease fires, which can explode if you intuitively throw water on them. That explosion can set fire to surrounding objects, and turn a flash in a pan into a room fire.

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But even here, there is improvement. Between 2019 and 2023, there were 11% fewer fires and 50% fewer deaths as a result, due to cooking fires.

It pays to be aware. The National Fire Protection Association writes that while ranges and stovetops were responsible a little over half of all cooking-related house fires, those fires led to 88% of the resulting deaths. This would be as opposed to ovens, toasters, or other appliances.

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Counterintuitively, gas ranges were less-prone to causing fires than electric ranges. Unattended cooking was by far the leading factor in cooking fires and cooking fire casualties, while combustible materials left near cooking areas, such as wrappers, towels, paper, potholders, or clothing, was the second leading factor.

In other words, if there’s one place in the house you should put a fire extinguisher, it’s the kitchen.