Heating
Heating equipment is one of the leading causes of home fire deaths. Fire departments responded to an estimated average of 44,210 fires involving heating equipment per year from 2016-2020, accounting for 13% of all reported home fires during this time, and these fires resulted in annual losses of 480 civilian deaths.
Heating fire facts
Based on 2016-2020 annual averages:
- Space heaters were the type of heating equipment responsible for the largest shares of losses in home heating equipment fires, accounting for one-third of the fires, but nearly nine out of ten deaths and four out of five of the injuries in home fires caused by heating equipment.
- Fires originating in a kitchen or cooking area accounted for the largest share of home heating fires (17%).
- While the larger (non-confined) fires involving fireplaces or chimneys were involved in fewer than one in ten fires caused by heating equipment (7%), they caused just over one-fifth of the direct property damage (22%).
- Nearly half of the heating equipment fires (46%) occurred in the three-month period from December through February.
Source: NFPA Research Division