The number of U.S. fires rose in 2011

In 2011, public fire departments responded to 1,389,500 fires in the United States, 4.4 percent more than the year before, according to Michael Karter in his article “Fire Loss in the United States During 2011” in the most recent issue of NFPA Journal. These included an estimated 484,500 structure fires, virtually the same number as occurred in 2010. Of these structure fires, 386,000 were residential fires, accounting for 80 percent of all structure fires. For nonresidential structure fires, some property types showed notable changes compared to 2010: there were 6,500 fires involving institutional properties, an increase of 18.2 percent, and 10,000 fires involving industrial properties, an increase of 11.1 percent. In addition, 686,000 outside fires were reported in 2011, an increase of 8.2 percent over 2010. An estimated 338,000 of these were brush, grass, and wildland fires, a significant increase of 11.2 percent from the year before. You can read the article check out the complete report online.