Are major house fires less common now than they were 20 years ago?

Factual Questions
1

Are super destructive house fires- the kind that burn the roof off and total the interior- less common now than they were twenty or twenty five years ago? I remember several half destroyed houses in my neighborhood when I was a kid, but nearly none as an adult. (and no, I wasn’t setting then).
Is this the general case, and if so, why? Better firefighting techniques? More smoke detectors? Flame retardant materials? Less smoking indoors (at least one '70’s fire from my neighborhood was traced to a smouldering cigarette butt that slipped under a sofa cushion).

2

Here’s a FEMA site that shows a decrease over the last ten years.

3

It makes sense- a lot more safety features and improvements in fire hazards like stoves,etc. have been made in 25 years- it’s a safer world

4

that didnt exactly come out how i wanted it to. I mean for things like appliances.

5

All of your guesses are correct, to the point that many fire departments have downsized considerably. Larger paid departments have had to take on EMS duties to justify thier increased downtime.

6

Also, I believe that emergency response times across the country have declined dramatically over the last 30 years. The longer a fire has been burning, the lower the chances of saving it, so a fire department arriving just a few minutes sooner could have a large impact.

7

Hmmmm, I thought I had once read that house fires had actually increased (just over the last few years) due to the sky-rocketing popularity of ornamental candles. (what is up with that trend, anyway?) But, I guess not, according to the USFA data…

8

To expand on the good Lt above…

  • Smoke detectors have made a huge advance in the past 25-30 years on the types and severity of residential structure fires. The earlier notification they provide gives a big jump on the whole fire department response. Shave just 10 minutes off of that time, and you dramatically reduce the amount of damage…keep it to a room and contents fire instead of a “well, at least we saved the foundation” fire.

  • Better firefighting techniques: Not just the techniques, but the equipment itself. Twenty-five years ago, air packs were just starting to pick up acceptance in the fire service, and we were still wearing cotton duck jackets and 3/4 length boots. Today, we have lightweight air packs, turnout gear (jacket and pants!) that keeps a goodly amount of the heat away (and a good amount in, but thats another topic), nomex hoods to stop us from cooking our ears, etc. We can get in farther and faster than we used to by leaps and bounds.
    Once we get there, we’re also flowing more water today on fires than we used to. Back in the 70s, there was trend towards high pressure/low flow fire hose. These hoses would flow 30 gallons/minute at 600psi or so, and you’d “fog” the fire out. Ten years ago it was accepted that 95 gallons/minute from a 1.5" hose would control a residential fire. Today, we’re hitting that same fire with 150 gpm from a 1.75" hose (and bigger). Hit the fire faster and harder and it goes out sooner.

  • Flame retardant materials: Remember polyethylene foam furniture? It was like a flamethrower in your living room. Modern furniture is somewhat more resistant to fire, but we also fill our houses with more plastic and other garbage than we used to. Plastic gives off twice the heat of natural products when it burns, and it does it in less time. So in a way, we’ve moved away from some bad products, but we fill our homes with more of it than we used to.
    The construction of modern homes may or may not help, either. The average single family home built 25-30 years ago was built of substiantial, stick-built construction. Today’s homes are built with lightweight roof and floor trusses that fail very soon after fire hits them; and the laminated veneer lumber that This Old House loves turns into a glue puddle when it catches fire. Modern homes fall down quickly once fire gets a hold. But, those same modern homes usually have decent electrical and utility systems, so the ignition sources have been scaled back some.

All in all, like the Lt said, its a combination of all of those things. Better prevention has helped (we’ve taught fire safety in our schools for 15-20 years in my area, now the kids who had those classes own their own homes), better engineering controls in the building industry, and better codes and enforcement keep the fires down. People doing foolish things keep us in business, though.

9

There ya go! :slight_smile: