New Report Reveals Most Common Time for Fires

A new report posted on the Berwyn Fire Co.'s website reveals staggering facts and figures about the most common time and rooms for house fires.

According to the report from the U.S. Fire Administraion an estimated 365,500 residential building fires are reported to U.S. fire departments each year and cause an estimated 2,560 deaths, 13,000 injuries, and $7.4 billion in property loss.

In 2011, the Berwyn Fire Co. responded to a record 850 fire calls ranging from false alarms to fully-involved building fires.

Nationally, the report tracks residential fires reported between 2008 and 2010. The study shows 45 percent of fires start in the kitchen. Most (94 percent) kitchen fires did not spread to other rooms. Residential fires happened more frequently in the winter months, peaking in January when 11 percent of all residential fires were reported.

The leading causes of fires that do spread beyond one room are "electrical malfunctions (16 percent), unintentional or careless actions (16 percent), intentional (12 percent), and open flame (11 percent)," the report says.

Smoke detectors were not present in 22 percent of the reported larger fires that spread to more than one room.

Click on the pdf to read the full report.