LOOK AT THE DENOMINATOR
Cooking fires:
two different shares.
How much of the total comes from cooking? The answer changes when you count fires or fire deaths.
United States · Residential buildings · Data years 2014–2023
Two totals. Two questions.
A share of fires and a share of fire deaths describe different totals. The first asks what portion of estimated residential-building fires were cooking fires. The second asks what portion of estimated residential-building fire deaths occurred in cooking fires.
The figures below keep the year and population aligned while showing both denominators.
2023, side by side
Approximate shares calculated by Ah from US Fire Administration (USFA) estimates.
Of estimated fires
48.7%
167,800 cooking fires out of 344,600 residential-building fires.
Of estimated fire deaths
4.3%
125 deaths in cooking fires out of 2,890 residential-building fire deaths.
4.3% is a share of all estimated residential-building fire deaths. It is not a person’s chance of dying in a cooking fire. A smaller share of deaths does not make cooking fires harmless.
Check every year and input
Each percentage uses the cooking estimate and the all-residential estimate in its own group of columns. All counts are estimates; all shares are approximate.
On a narrow screen, scroll the table sideways. With the table focused, use the left and right arrow keys.
| Year | Estimated fires | Estimated fire deaths | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cooking | All residential | Approx. share | Cooking | All residential | Approx. share | |
| 2014 | 189,800 | 379,500 | 50.0% | 250 | 2,765 | 9.0% |
| 2015 | 193,400 | 380,900 | 50.8% | 165 | 2,565 | 6.4% |
| 2016 | 183,300 | 364,300 | 50.3% | 170 | 2,775 | 6.1% |
| 2017 | 191,800 | 371,500 | 51.6% | 170 | 2,695 | 6.3% |
| 2018 | 192,700 | 379,600 | 50.8% | 170 | 2,790 | 6.1% |
| 2019 | 178,100 | 354,400 | 50.3% | 150 | 2,830 | 5.3% |
| 2020 | 192,600 | 372,000 | 51.8% | 140 | 2,615 | 5.4% |
| 2021 | 170,000 | 353,500 | 48.1% | 135 | 2,840 | 4.8% |
| 2022 | 178,600 | 374,300 | 47.7% | 100 | 2,720 | 3.7% |
| 2023 | 167,800 | 344,600 | 48.7% | 125 | 2,890 | 4.3% |
The CSV includes the input counts, source links, dates and limitations. Free to inspect without an account.
How the shares are calculated
- Fire share: cooking-fire estimate ÷ all-residential-fire estimate × 100.
- Fire-death share: cooking-fire-death estimate ÷ all-residential-fire-death estimate × 100.
Ah divides the published estimates and rounds each percentage to one decimal place. The published fire counts are already rounded to the nearest 100, and death counts to the nearest 5, so these shares are approximate. They are Ah’s calculations, not official USFA percentage releases or confidence intervals.
USFA combines incident reports with national survey totals to produce scaled estimates. Its method allocates unknown causes in the same proportions as known causes, an assumption that may not perfectly match those cases.
Where the comparison stops
- The counts describe residential buildings in the United States in 2014–2023. They are not current-year incidents or a count of all types of fires.
- Fire estimates do not count unique households. Death estimates do not count fatal fire incidents.
- Neither share gives a household’s probability of a fire or the chance of dying in a cooking fire. Dividing one share by the other does not provide that answer.
- This comparison does not rank causes, explain why the shares differ, measure a prevention effect or forecast the next year.
A useful next step
Use USFA’s cooking-fire prevention guidance for practical precautions in the kitchen. The shares here do not tell you which precautions your home needs.
Comparing another pair of figures? Check the population, outcome, place, years and units in Ah’s comparison worksheet →
Sources and dates
- USFA: Residential fire estimate summaries
All-residential fire and fire-death estimates, 2014–2023. USFA page reviewed 2025-02-14; retrieved 2026-10-10.
- USFA: Residential building cooking fire trends
Cooking fire and fire-death estimates, 2014–2023. USFA page reviewed 2025-02-14; retrieved 2026-10-10.
- USFA: National Estimates Methodology (PDF)
Scaled estimates, rounding and treatment of unknown causes; printed pages 1 and 4–7.
- USFA: Cooking fire prevention
Prevention resource, reviewed by USFA 2026-09-28. Its 2021 background statistics are not used in the calculations above.
Ah source and calculation check: 2026-10-10. Next review due 2027-01-08. Source dates and observation years are different. Report a correction.
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