Risk of fire, fire death and property damage lower in high-rise buildings
Between 2005 and 2009, there was an average if 15,700 fires each year in high-rise buildings in the United States, causing about $235 million in property damage.
The US-based National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) said that while high-rise fires claimed the lives of 53 people per year – and injured another 546 – there is a “downward trend” in high-rise fires. New safety provisions and building codes, along with renewed planning and evacuation procedures, have helped to reduce the risk of high-rise fires.
Still, the NFPA’s report, High-Rise Building Fires, cites apartments, hotels, offices, and facilities that care for sick as accounting for roughly half of all high-rise fires. Structure fires in these four property classes resulted in $99 million in direct property damage per year.
The NFPA’s report also found:
- The risks of fire, fire death, and direct property damage due to fire tend to be lower in high-rise buildings than in shorter buildings of the same property use.
- An estimated three percent of all 2005-2009 reported structure fires were in high-rise buildings.
- Usage of wet pipe sprinklers and fire detection equipment is higher in high-rise buildings than in other buildings of the same property use. Most high-rise building fires begin on floors no higher than the 6th story. The risk of a fire is greater on the lower floors for apartments, hotels and motels, and facilities that care for the sick, but greater on the upper floors for office buildings.
The report, High-Rise Building Fires, can be read online. (PDF)
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