The Rural Fire Problem in the United States

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Executive Summary

This report summarizes the findings from an extensive analysis of the fire problem in rural areas of the U.S. While there are many similarities between fires in rural and non-rural areas, there are also many differences. Some of the differences, such as the higher incidence of heating fires in rural areas, point to issues that need to be considered when designing public education programs to reduce the number of fires and the deaths, injuries, and property loss associated with rural fires. For the purposes of this report, "rural" is defined as all counties that have populations of fewer than 20,000 persons and that are generally not adjacent to metropolitan areas. The most important findings of this study are summarized below:

Rural Fires

The leading cause of fires is different in rural areas than in non-rural areas. Heating is the leading cause of residential structure fires in rural areas and causes 34 percent of rural residential fires. Heating is the cause of only 15 percent of residential fires in non-rural areas. In contrast, cooking is the leading cause of residential fires in non-rural areas.
In particular, the lack of maintenance of heating devices is a serious cause of residential heating fires in rural areas. Lack of maintenance includes creosote build-up in chimneys and stovepipes. Lack of maintenance was cited in 78 percent of rural heating fires. This suggests a critical need for public education in rural areas to make people aware of the hazards of not properly maintaining heating equipment, chimneys, and vents.
Stationary heating units are the leading type of equipment involved in ignition of rural residential heating fires. Chimneys, vents, and flues are the second leading category of equipment involved in ignition. Together, these two types of equipment account for 62 percent of all rural heating fires. Interestingly, "fixed stationary" rather than "portable" heaters are identified as the culprit in this analysis.
Because of the prevalence of heating fires, the most common area of fire origin in rural fires is chimneys. The next most common areas are cooking areas and lounge areas. Heating equipment rooms are identified as the area of fire origin in only a small proportion of rural heating fires, suggesting that most rural heating fires are not related to central heating.
Heating is the leading cause of residential fires in rural areas of both the northern and the southern states. Because of the climate, however, heating is a more predominant cause in the North.
The lack of working smoke detectors is a significant problem in rural areas. Smoke detectors were present and operational in only 27 percent of rural residential fires (versus 35 percent of non-rural fires).
The lack of working smoke detectors is an even greater problem in rural areas of the South than in rural areas of the North.
The extent of flame damage that residential structures sustain is worse in rural areas than in non-rural areas. This is likely due to two factors. Emergency response times are longer in rural areas due to longer travel distances. Additionally, fires may burn longer before being noticed in rural areas due to lower population densities.
The leading causes of fires in manufactured housing in rural areas are similar to other types of rural residences.
The lack of working smoke detectors in manufactured housing is a significant problem. Seventy-five percent of rural manufactured homes that experienced fires do not have an operating smoke detector.

Rural Fire Deaths

Fire death rates are significantly higher (35 percent higher) in rural areas compared to non-rural areas. These differences are even greater when comparing fire death rates across race and ethnicity groups.
Within rural areas, the majority of annual fire death victims are White. In per capita terms, however, African Americans and Native Americans have higher risks of dying as a result of fires than do Whites.
While the death rate is higher in rural areas and for certain subgroups of the population, the distributions of fire deaths by age, race, and gender are similar in "rural" and "non-rural" areas.