Last year I was trying to find out how many people in the U.S.lose
their homes to fire every year. I spent hours on the internet and then
on phones with insurance co's and government agencies (including FEMA
who did not call me back, big suprise) and there are a ton of
statistics on dollar losses broken down into every finite category you
can think of but no one was ever able to tell me the number of PEOPLE
affected. That's my question "How many people (or how many family
units) in the U.S. have significant damage to their homes from fire
every year (or the nember each year for the last ten years, if that
informaion is available and then I can average it out). By significant
I mean pretty much burned down oruninhabitable for some period of time
and most possessions lost.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 25 Oct 2005 18:55 PDT

A report from a US government agency, the National Fire Data Center,
can be seen here:


http://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/tfrs/v3i9.pdf
Residential Structure Fires in 2000
June 2004


and notes the following:


--In 2000, 379,500 residential structure fires resulted in 3,445
fatalities, 17,400 injuries, and $5.7 billion in property loss.

--The majority of fires (and losses) occurred in one- and two-family dwellings.

--The three leading causes of residential fires were cooking, heating,
and incendiary/suspicious (arson) fires.

--The average damage to a home from a residential fire was $13,507 per fire.


Does that information get at what you were asking?

If not, what sort of data would better meet your needs?

Let us know.

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by toni11-ga on 26 Oct 2005 11:48 PDT

It would help if we knew how many of these resedential structure fires
resulted in nearly 100% property loss, i.e. those people who lost
nearly everything.

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 26 Oct 2005 12:17 PDT

I know where you can subscribe to a database of national statistics
for 30 days for $35.95 that would probably have the information you
are looking for. It will give you access to (among many other data)
national, state & metropolitan statistical data on fire deaths,
injuries and property damage in US. The statistical fire reports are
based on information in the National Fire Incident Reporting System
database. I can post this for you as an answer if you like.

tutuzdad-ga

You may want to contact the National Fire Protection Agency's Fire
Analysis and Research Division.

Fire Analysis & Research Division 
National Fire Protection Association 
1 Batterymarch Park 
Quincy, MA 02169-7471 
www.nfpa.org