The National Fire Protection Association (“NFPA”) has released a report showing that the total cost of fire in the U.S. in 2011 was estimated at $329 billion, or roughly 2.1 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (“GDP”). Adjusted for inflation, the total cost represents a 34 percent increase over 1980, while its proportion of U.S. GDP has declined by about one-third.
However, both the total cost of fire and its associated percentage of GDP have been roughly steady for the past decade and a half.
Other key findings from the report:
- Although the core total cost of fire has increased by 40 percent from 1980 to 2011 to a total of $108.4 billion, the economic loss due to fire decreased by 31 percent, totaling $14.9 billion, with all figures adjusted for inflation.
- Fires in 2011 caused $13.3 billion in direct property damage (reported or unreported), which represented 89 percent of economic loss that year. The other 11 percent was indirect loss, such as temporary housing and business interruption.
- New building construction for fire protection was estimated to cost $31 billion in 2011.
Victoria Spears
Victoria Prussen Spears is senior vice president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Spears was an attorney at a leading New York City law firm before joining Meyerowitz Communications. She may be contacted at [email protected].