NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 67

ANALYSIS + RESEARCH NFPA REPORTS Property loss NFPA estimates that the 1,345,500 fires to which the fire service responded in 2015 caused $14.3 billion in prop- Photograph: AP/Wide World erty damage, 23.2 percent more than the year before. Two major California wildfires-the Valley Fire, with $1.5 billion in property damage, and the Butte Fire, with $450 million in property damage-contributed to this highly significant increase. Fires in structures not related to wildfires resulted in $10.3 billion in property damage, an increase of 4.4 percent from 2014. Each structure fire resulted in an average property loss of $20,499, an increase of 2.8 percent from the previous year. From 1977 to 2015, excluding the events of September 11, 2001, the average loss per structure fire was $3,757 in 1977 and $20,499 in 2015, for an overall increase of 446 percent. When property loss is adjusted for inflation in 2015 dollars, however, the increase in the average structure fire loss between 1977 and 2015 is 39.5 percent. Of the 2015 property loss in structures, $7 billion occurred in home structures, a decrease of 2 percent from the previous year. An estimated $5.8 billion of this loss occurred in one- and two-family homes, a decrease of 0.8 percent. An estimated loss of $1.2 billion occurred in apartments or other multi-family housing like condominiums. While apartment property loss increased significantly, by 18.2 percent, from the previous year, the number of fires in apartments increased at a lower rate, for a 1 percent year-over-year decrease. Other property damage results for 2015 include $323 million in public assembly properties, a significant decrease of 24.7 percent; $635 million in stores and office properties, a 10.3 percent decrease; $1.2 billion in highway vehicles, an 8.3 percent increase; and $579 million in other vehicles, a significant increase of 52.4 percent, partly due to the aircraft fire that occurred at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. There was a highly significant 32.1 percent increase in storage properties, to $1 billion, é mated 15,700 civilian fire injuries. This is a decrease of 0.5 percent from the year before, and is the lowest the number has been since we started using our current survey methodology in 1977. Since civilian fire injuries are not always reported to the fire service, estimates of civilian fire injuries may be lower than actual levels. For example, many injuries occur at small fires to which fire departments do not respond, and even when fire departments do respond, they may be unaware of injured persons they did not transport to medical facilities themselves. Of the 15,700 civilians injured last year, we estimate that 13,000 civilians were injured in structure fires, and of those, we estimate that 11,075 were injured in home structure fires, a decrease of 6.3 percent from the previous year. Of these injuries, 8,050 occurred in one- and two-family homes and manufactured homes, and 3,025 occurred in apartments. An additional 1,425 civilians were injured in nonresidential structure fires in 2015, an increase of 14 percent from the year before. Additionally, 1,550 civilians were injured in highway vehicle fires, a 21.6 percent increase from 2014. Injuries associated with other vehicle fires (including planes, trains, ships, construction, and farm vehicles) rose from 175 in 2014 to 325 in 2015, a highly significant increase of 85.7 percent. This large increase is due in part to the District of Columbia Metro train fire incident where 84 civilians were injured and one person killed. Between 1977 and 2015, the number of civilian injuries ranged from a peak of 31,325 in 1979 to a low of 15,700 in 2015, a decrease of 50 percent. Since 1997, civilian injuries have remained below 35,000 per year, below 19,000 since 2002, and below 16,000 since 2013. » OVERVIEW OF 2015 U.S Fire Experience (cont.) A further $2 billion in property damage occurred in two major California wildfires. The losses in these wildfires includes homes, outbuildings, commercial properties, and other structures. Highway vehicle fires resulted in $1.2 billion in property loss last year. Intentionally set fires An estimated 23,000 fires were intentionally set in 2015, excluding fires whose causes were unknown, a highly significant increase of 21.1 percent over the year before. Intentionally set fires in structures also resulted in 205 civilian deaths, a highly significant increase of 30.6 percent from the previous year. At the same time, intentionally set structure fires resulted in $460 million in property loss, a highly significant decrease of 25 percent from 2014. There were 10,000 intentionally set vehicle fires, a highly significant increase of 25 percent from the previous year. These fires resulted in $74 million in property damage, a highly significant decrease of 36.2 percent from the year before. A warehouse burns in Illinois. An estimated $14.3 billion in property damage occurred as a result of fire in the U.S. 2015. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016 NFPA JOURNAL 67

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - September/October 2016