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Residential Building Fire Causes (2014-2023)

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National estimates

The 2023 national estimates for the leading causes of residential building fires show that there were:

167,800 cooking fires.
31,500 other unintentional, careless fires.
27,900 heating fires.
23,700 electrical malfunction fires.

Overall trends

Overall trends in the leading fire causes for the 10-year period of 2014 to 2023 show the following:

Cooking as the leading cause of residential building fires for the 10-year period.
An 11% decrease in residential cooking fires.
A 42% increase in residential other unintentionally or carelessly set fires.
A 31% decrease in residential heating fires.
A 2% increase in residential electrical malfunction fires.

Leading causes of residential building fires (2014-2023)

	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Cooking	189800	193400	183300	191800	192700	178100	192600	170000	178600	167800
Other unintentional, careless	22000	24500	24200	26400	28600	27200	27800	29800	33000	31500
Heating	47600	41200	35100	33800	35700	33100	33000	32200	34800	27900
Electrical malfunction	23900	24500	23500	24100	25700	24200	23400	24200	26100	23700

Fire estimate summaries present basic data on the size and status of the fire problem in the U.S. as depicted through data reported to the U.S. Fire Administration's (USFA's) National Fire Incident Reporting System from incidents reported by local response agencies. Each Fire Estimate Summary addresses the size of the specific fire or fire-related issue and highlights important trends in the data.

Fire estimate summaries are based on the USFA's National Estimates Methodology for Building Fires and Losses PDF. The USFA is committed to providing the best and most current information on the U.S. fire problem and continually examines data received from participating fire departments and the analytical methods used to fulfill this goal. Because of this commitment, data collection strategies and methodological changes are possible and do occur. Previous estimates on specific issues (or similar issues) may have used different methodologies or data definitions and, therefore, may not be directly comparable to current estimates.