Fact sheets

About home structure fires
U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated 386,500 home structure fires in 2008. These fires caused:

  • 2,755 civilian fire deaths
  • 13,160 civilian fire injuries
  • $8.2 billion in direct damage

Roughly 83% of all civilian fire deaths in 2008 resulted from home structure fires. Nationwide, once every three hours someone is fatally injured in a home fire.

Sources: Fire Loss in the United States During 2008 (PDF, 516 KB), Michael J. Karter, Jr., NFPA, Quincy, MA. August 2009

Home Structure Fires (PDF, 388 KB), Marty Ahrens, NFPA, Quincy, MA, January 2009 

Fire in the home poses one of the biggest threats to the people of your community. Nearly 400,000 home fires occur every year in the United States and nearly 3,000 people a year died in these home fires. Home fire sprinklers are a proven way to protect lives and property against fires at home.

These life-saving systems respond quickly and effectively to the presence of a nearby fire. When sprinklers are present, they save lives.

  • If you have a reported fire in your home, the risk of dying decreases by about 80 percent when sprinklers are present.
  • People in homes with sprinklers are protected against significant property loss—sprinklers reduce the average property loss by 74% per fire.

Model safety codes now require the use of home fire sprinklers in new one- and two-family homes. These requirements offer the highest level of safety to protect the people of your community.

  • Home sprinkler systems respond quickly to reduce the heat, flames, and smoke from a fire, giving families valuable time to get to safety.
  • Roughly 90% of the time, just one sprinkler operates.
  • Each individual sprinkler is designed and calibrated to go off when it senses a significant heat change.
  • Only the sprinkler closest to the fire will activate, spraying water directly on the fire.

Download a reproducible copy of this fact sheet (PDF, 44 KB).