Total Cost of Fire in the United States (PDF; 109 KB)
Source: National Fire Protection Association

The total cost of fire in the United States is defined to be a combination of the losses caused by fire and the money spent to prevent worse losses, by preventing fires, containing them, detecting them quickly, and suppressing them effectively. For 2005, that total cost is estimated at $267-294 billion, or roughly 2 to 2½% of U.S. gross domestic product. Property loss – reported or unreported, direct or indirect – represents only $12.7 billion of this total. The net costs of insurance coverage ($15.9 billion), the cost of career fire departments ($30.7 billion), building costs for fire protection ($45.9 billion), other economic costs ($39.9 billion), the monetary value of donated time from volunteer firefighters ($80-107 billion), and the estimated monetary equivalent for the deaths and injuries due to fire ($41.6 billion), all are larger components than property loss.

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