Get the Facts!
- The American Red Cross responded to more than 74,000 disasters in communities across the United States last year and 93 percent of these were fire related.
- The American Red Cross is responding to 10 percent more home fires today than it was six years ago.
- Nationally, the number of home fires is on the rise with the number of fires increasing 8 percent since 2000. The average cost of a home fire in 2006 was more than $17,000.
- Eighty percent of Americans don’t realize that home fires are the single most common disaster across the nation.
- Only 26 percent of families have actually developed and practiced a home fire escape plan.
- Fires kill more Americans each year than all natural disasters combined, and affect people from all backgrounds and geographic locations.
- In 2006, a home fire was reported every 80 seconds, and someone dies from a home fire every 204 minutes.
- Children under five and adults over 65 are more than twice as likely to die in a home fire than the rest of the US population.
- Cooking fires are the leading cause of home fires and home fire injuries. And, two out of three cooking fires start with the range or stove.
- Heating fires are the second leading cause of home fires.
- Smoking is the leading cause of home fire deaths.
- In 2005, 74 percent of home fire deaths occurred in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms.
- Sprinklers and smoke alarms together cut your risk of dying in a home fire 82% in relation to having neither.
- Each year over 200 people die from carbon monoxide produced by fuel burning appliances in the home including furnaces, ranges, water heaters and room heaters.
- High-rise fires are more injurious and cause more damage than all other structure fires.
