U.S. Fire Statistics

This page contains statistics on fires that occur in the United States and analytical and topical reports that describe the national fire problem. Also included are statistics related to firefighters and fire departments.

Career firefighters include full-time (career) uniformed firefighters regardless of assignments, e.g., suppression, prevention/inspection, administrative. Career firefighters included here work for a public municipal fire department; they do not include career firefighters who work for state or federal government or in private fire brigades.

Volunteer firefighters include any active part-time (call or volunteer) firefighters. Active volunteers are defined as being involved in firefighting.

• Estimated number of firefighters in 2007: 1,148,800 (career: 323,350, volunteer: 825,450)
• Firefighters by age group: 16-19 (3.5%), 20-29 (21.4%), 30-39 (28.2%), 40-49 (25.9%), 50-59 (15.4%), 60 and over (5.5%)
• Seventy-four percent of career firefighters are in communities that protect a population of 25,000 or more.
• Ninety-five percent of the volunteers are in departments that protect a population of less than 25,000 and more than 50% are located in small, rural departments that protect a population of less than 2,500.

Source: National Fire Protection Association, U.S. Fire Department Profile Through 2007

• Estimated number of fire departments in 2007: 30,185
• Estimated number of stations in the United States for 2005-2007: 51,950
• A fire department responds to a fire in the United States every 20.0 seconds

2007 Response Breakdown

Response	Number	% Change from 2006
Fires	1,557,500	-5.2
Medical Aid	15,784,000	+4.8
False Alarms	2,208,500	+4.1
Mutual Aid/Assistance	1,109,500	-4.3
Hazmat	395,500	+1.8
Other Hazardous (Arcing wires, bomb removal, etc.)	686,500	+4.2
All Other (Smoke scares, lock-outs, etc.)	3,593,000	+4.5
TOTAL	25,334,500	+3.5

• Fire department types*: Career (7.5%), Mostly Career (5.8%), Mostly Volunteer (16.5%), All Volunteer (70.1%)
• 13% of all departments are career or mostly career and protect 62% of the U.S. population
• 87% of fire departments are volunteer or mostly volunteer and protect 38% of the population
• There are an estimated 68,050 pumpers and 6,750 aerial apparatus in the United States for 2005-2007

^* Career=100% career firefighters, Mostly Career=51%-99% career firefighters, Mostly Volunteer=1%-50% career firefighters, Volunteer=100% volunteer firefighters

Source: National Fire Protection Association reports Fire Loss in the United States 2007 and U.S. Fire Department Profile Through 2007

• There were 3,430 civilians that lost their lives as the result of fire.
• There were 17,675 civilian injuries that occurred as the result of fire.
• There were 118 firefighters killed while on duty.
• Fire killed more Americans than all natural disasters combined.
• 84 percent of all civilian fire deaths occurred in residences.
• There were an estimated 1.6 million fires in 2007.
• Direct property loss due to fires was estimated at $14.6 billion.
• An estimated 32,500 intentionally set structure fires resulted in 295 civilian deaths.
• Intentionally set structure fires resulted in an estimated $733 million in property damage.

Source: National Fire Protection Association Fire Loss in the U.S. 2007 and USFA's Firefighter Fatalities in the United States in 2007.