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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	189,800	193,400	183,300	191,800	192,700	178,100	192,600	170,000	178,600	167,800
Other unintentional, careless	22,000	24,500	24,200	26,400	28,600	27,200	27,800	29,800	33,000	31,500
Heating	47,600	41,200	35,100	33,800	35,700	33,100	33,000	32,200	34,800	27,900
Electrical malfunction	23,900	24,500	23,500	24,100	25,700	24,200	23,400	24,200	26,100	23,700

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.