Texas State Fire Marshal: Fire Occurred Every 7 Minutes in 2014

A fire occurred every seven minutes in 2014 in Texas, state fire officials say.

A report released by the State Fire Marshal’s Office, shows that last year, 957 fire departments in Texas reported 72,124 fires, an increase of 1,005 or 1.4 percent over 2013; 163 civilian fire-related deaths; 780 civilian fire injuries; and $662,625,954 in property damage from fires.

In a letter announcing the study – Fires in Texas – based on the Texas Fire Incident Reporting System, State Fire Marshal Chris Connealy said the summary has been published for 33 years.

The goal of the analysis is to help Texas fire responders and other to “understand the fire problem and how it impacts our state and its citizens,” Connealy said. It is based on data offered by participating fire departments that actively participate in TEXFIRS reporting.

Of the more than 72,000 fires that occurred in Texas in 2014:

• 21,512 were structure fires – an increase of 1,173 or 5.8 percent over 2013
• 12,172 were vehicle fires – an increase of 201 or 1.7 percent over 2013
• 38,440 outside or other types of fires – a decrease of 369 or 1 percent from 2013.

Residential fires represented the bulk of the total number of structure fires in Texas: 16,561 out of the 21,512 structure fires were residential fires. The kitchen, at 33 percent, was most frequently identified as the location where a residential structure fire originated. Most fire-related civilian deaths – 110 or 67 percent – occurred in residential structure fires.

Twenty-seven percent of civilian deaths in structure fires involved those aged 65 and over; 22 percent of residential structure fire incidents had operational smoke detectors present; and 32 percent of fatal residential structure fire incidents did not have smoke detectors present.

The 12,172 vehicle fires reported for 2014 caused an estimated $85,417,341 in property damage.

Vehicle fires also resulted in 43 fire-related civilian fatalities, 67 fire-related civilian injuries and 19 fire service injuries.