Fire Death Rates Are Highest in Southern States

Southern states continue to have the highest fire death rates in the nation, according to data compiled by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).  The NFPA began tracking fire deaths rates -defined as deaths per million population, in 1981. Fire death rates have been consistently highest in southern states since that time.

State Fire Marshals track the number of fire deaths each year. In Minnesota, for example, there were 36 fire deaths in 2018 down from 68 in 2017, the state’s highest number of fire fatalities since 1995.  Alabama, a similarly sized state, reported 70 fire fatalities in 2018 and 79 in 2017. So the fire death rate in Minnesota is around 8.1, while Alabama’s is 19.2.

The NFPA’s most recent data shows that fire death rates varied nationwide, from a low of 3.9 percent in Utah to a high of 24.4 in West Virginia. The average was 9.7 deaths per million population.

Last year, the report showed eight of the states with the highest fire death rates were located in the South. (Mississippi, West Virginia, Arkansas, Alaska, Alabama, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Kentucky, Louisiana and South Dakota.) This year, nine of them are. The states with the highest fire deat rates in 2016, the most current year of available data, were: West Virginia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alaska, Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Lousiana and Missouri.

There are a number of socioeconomic factors that affect the rate of fire deaths in the U.S., according to NFPA researchers. They include states with larger percentages of the population: with incomes below the poverty line, of adults without a high school diploma or equivalent, residents who are smokers, residents who live in rural areas, and residents who are either black or Native American.