Fire Statistics

Interesting read from "Firesafety.gov for Citizens". The number of residential fires hit an all time low in 2009 (good) but when looking at the trending over the last 10 years I would have expected the results to be much better than they are. In fact, the difference between 2000 and 2009 is less than a .6% improvement. Injury & death as a percent of fires is even better with a 16% improvement.

Year Fires Inj & death as % of Fire
2000 379,500 4.93%
2001 396,500 4.72%
2002 401,000 4.17%
2003 402,000 4.29%
2004 410,500 4.24%
2005 396,000 4.26%
2006 412,500 3.77%
2007 414,000 4.07%
2008 403,000 4.05%
2009 377,000 4.14%
Source: National Fire Protection Association Fire Loss in the U.S. During 2009
Not sure what my point is but we know fire safety is much stronger today then it ever has been. But fires still happen. Every Day. 1032 per day to be exact. 43 per hour. Almost one residential house fire every minute.
Test your smoke alarms and be fire safe.