Home Heating Fires

Report: NFPA's "Home Heating Fires"
Author: Richard Campbell
Issued: January 2021

Report and tables

Home Heating Fires

Heating equipment is a leading cause of fires in U.S. homes. These homes included one- and two-family homes (including manufactured homes) and apartments (including townhouses and other multi-family dwellings).

Download the report.

Supporting tables

The tables in this document are a companion to the Home Fires Involving Heating Equipment report. Most tables, with the exception of fires by year, show estimates of 2014-2018 annual averages.

Download the tables.

Report highlights

• Heating equipment is a leading cause of fires in U.S. homes. Local fire departments responded to an estimated average of 48,530 fires involving heating equipment each year in 2014-2018. These fires resulted in annual losses of 500 civilian deaths, 1,350 civilian injuries, and $1.1 billion in direct property damage.
• Heating equipment caused one in seven home structure fires (14%) that took place in 2014–2018 and 19% of home fire deaths.
• The leading factor contributing to home heating fires (25%) was failure to clean, principally from solid-fueled heating equipment, primarily chimneys.
• Over half (54%) of the home heating fire deaths were caused by having heating equipment too close to things that can burn, such as upholstered furniture, clothing, mattress, or bedding.
• A vast majority of home heating fire deaths (81%) involved stationary or portable space heaters.
• Nearly half (48%) of all home heating fires occurred in January, February, and December.

 More information

• Read NFPA's heating safety tips.

Contact us

Please contact us with any questions.