USFA Structure Fire Cause Methodology
Since the introduction of National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Version 5.0, the implementation of the cause hierarchy has resulted in a steady increase in the percentages of unknown fire causes. This increase may be due, in part, to the fact that the original cause hierarchy (described in Fire in the United States 1995-2004, 14th Edition) does not apply as well to Version 5.0. Causal information now collected as part of NFIRS Version 5.0 was not incorporated in the old hierarchy. As a result, many incidents were assigned to the unknown cause category. As the hierarchy was originally designed for structures, incidents that did not fit well into the structure cause categories were also assigned to the unknown category.
Structure Fires
To capture the wealth of data available in NFIRS 5.0, USFA developed a modified version of the previous cause hierarchy for structure fires as shown in Table 1. The revised schema provides three levels of cause descriptions: a set of more detailed causes (priority cause description), a set of mid-level causes (cause description), and a set of high-level causes (general cause description). The priority cause description and the cause description existed previously as part of the original cause hierarchy, but have been expanded to capture the new 5.0 data.
Table 1. Three-Level Structure Fire Cause Hierarchy
Priority Cause Description
(in hierarchical order) |
Cause Description |
General Cause Description |
Exposure |
Exposure |
Exposure |
Intentional |
Intentional |
Firesetting |
Investigation with Arson Module |
Investigation with Arson Module |
Unknown |
Children Playing |
Playing with Heat Source |
Firesetting |
Other Playing |
Natural |
Natural |
Natural |
Fireworks |
Other Heat |
Flame, Heat |
Explosives |
Smoking |
Smoking |
Heating |
Heating |
Equipment |
Cooking |
Cooking |
Air Conditioning |
Appliances |
Electrical Distribution |
Electrical Malfunction |
Electrical |
Appliances |
Appliances |
Equipment |
Special Equipment |
Other Equipment |
Processing Equipment |
Torches |
Open Flame |
Flame, Heat |
Service Equipment |
Other Equipment |
Equipment |
Vehicle, Engine |
Unclassified Fuel Powered Equipment |
Unclassified Equipment w/ Other or Unknown Fuel
Source |
Unknown |
Unknown |
Unclassified Electrical Malfunction |
Electrical Malfunction |
Electrical |
Matches, Candles |
Open Flame |
Flame, Heat |
Open Fire |
Other Open Flame, Spark |
Other Heat |
Friction, Hot Material |
Ember, Rekindle |
Open Flame |
Other Hot Object |
Other Heat |
Natural Condition, Other |
Natural |
Natural |
Heat Source or Product Misuse |
Other Unintentional, Careless |
Unknown |
Equipment Operation Deficiency |
Equipment Misoperation,
Failure |
Equipment |
Equipment Failure, Malfunction |
Trash, Rubbish |
Unknown |
Unknown |
Other Unintentional |
Other Unintentional, Careless |
Exposure (Fire Spread, Other) |
Exposure |
Exposure |
Unknown |
Unknown |
Unknown |
Note: Fires are assigned to a cause category in the hierarchical order shown. For example, if the fire is judged to be intentionally set and a match was used to ignite it, it is classified as intentional and not open flame because intentional is higher on the list.
The causes of fires are often a complex chain of events. To make it easier to grasp the "big picture," the 16 mid-level categories of fire causes such as heating, cooking, and playing with heat source are used by the USFA. The alternative is to present scores of detailed cause categories or scenarios, each of which would have a relatively small percentage of fires. For example, heating includes subcategories such as misuse of portable space heaters, wood stove chimney fires, and fires involving gas central heating systems. Experience has shown that the larger categories are useful for an initial presentation of the fire problem. A more detailed analysis can follow.
Fires are assigned to one of the 16 mid-level cause groupings using a hierarchy of definitions, approximately as shown in Table 2.1 A fire is included in the highest category into which it fits on the list. If it does not fit the top category, then the second one is considered, and if not that one, the third, and so on. (See Table 1 Note for examples.)
Vehicle, Outside, and Other Fires
While these new cause categories have usefulness for the other property types - vehicle, outside, and other fires - there are limitations. USFA plans to investigate and develop specific cause categories for vehicle, outside, and other fires. Until then, the causes of fires for these property types are based on the distributions of the NFIRS cause of ignition data element. This data element captures a very broad sense of the cause of the fire.
Other Considerations
An additional problem to keep in mind when considering the rank order of causes is that sufficient data to categorize the cause were not reported to NFIRS for all fatal fires in the database. The rank order of causes might be different than shown here if the cause profile for the fires whose causes were not reported to NFIRS were substantially different from the profile for the fires whose causes were reported. However, there is no information available to indicate that there is a major difference between the known causes and the unknown causes, and so our present best estimate of fire causes is based on the distribution of the fires with known causes.
Table 2. Mid-Level Cause Groupings
Cause Category |
Definition |
Exposure |
Caused by heat
spreading from another hostile fire. |
Intentional |
Cause of ignition is
intentional or fire is deliberately set. |
Investigation
with Arson Module |
Cause is under
investigation and a valid NFIRS Arson Module is present. |
Playing with
Heat Source |
Includes all fires
caused by individuals playing with any materials contained in the categories
below as well as fires where the factors contributing to ignition include
playing with heat source. Children playing with fire are included in this
category. |
Natural |
Caused by the sun’s
heat, spontaneous ignition, chemicals, lightning, static discharge, high
winds, storms, high water including floods, earthquakes, volcanic action, and
animals. |
Other Heat |
Includes fireworks,
explosives, flame/torch used for lighting, heat or spark from friction,
molten material, hot material, heat from hot or smoldering objects. |
Smoking |
Cigarettes, cigars,
pipes, and heat from undetermined smoking materials. |
Heating |
Includes confined
chimney or flue fire, fire confined to fuel burner/boiler malfunction, central
heating, fixed and portable local heating units, fireplaces and chimneys, furnaces,
boilers, water heaters as source of heat. |
Cooking |
Includes confined
cooking fires, stoves, ovens, fixed and portable warming units, deep fat
fryers, open grills as source of heat. |
Appliances |
Includes
televisions, radios, video equipment, phonographs, dryers, washing machines, dishwashers,
garbage disposals, vacuum cleaners, hand tools, electric blankets, irons, hairdryers,
electric razors, can openers, dehumidifiers, heat pumps, water cooling
devices, air conditioners, freezers and refrigeration equipment as source of
heat. |
Electrical Malfunction |
Includes electrical
distribution, wiring, transformers, meter boxes, power switching gear,
outlets, cords, plugs, surge protectors, electric fences, lighting fixtures,
electrical arcing as source of heat. |
Other Equipment |
Includes special
equipment (radar, x-ray, computer, telephone, transmitters, vending machine,
office machine, pumps, printing press, gardening tools, or agricultural
equipment), processing equipment (furnace, kiln, other industrial machines),
service, maintenance equipment (incinerator, elevator), separate motor or
generator, vehicle in a structure, unspecified equipment. |
Open Flame,
Spark (heat from) |
Includes torches,
candles, matches, lighters, open fire, ember, ash, rekindled fire, backfire
from internal combustion engine as source of heat. |
Other
Unintentional, Careless |
Includes misuse of
material or product, abandoned or discarded materials or products, heat
source too close to combustibles, other unintentional (mechanical
failure/malfunction, backfire). |
Equipment
Misoperation, Failure |
Includes equipment
operation deficiency, equipment malfunction. |
Unknown |
Cause of fire undetermined or not reported. |
Source: USFA
NFIRS fire causal data can be analyzed in many ways, such as by the heat source, equipment involved in ignition, factors contributing to ignition, or many other groupings. The hierarchy of causes used has proven to be useful in understanding the fire problem and targeting prevention, but other approaches are useful too. Because the NFIRS database stores records fire-by-fire, and not just in summary statistics, a very wide variety of analyses is possible.
The cause categories displayed in the graphs of USFA’s NFIRS data-related reports are listed in the same order to make comparisons easier from one to another. The y-scale varies from figure to figure depending on the largest percentage that is shown; the y-scale on a figure with multiple charts, however, is always the same.
1 The hierarchy involves a large number of subcategories that are later grouped into the 16 mid-level cause categories, then the 8 high-level cause groupings.