5 Common Causes of Fires

Residential and business fires can leave people with no possessions and many health complications. If you are injured in a fire, you likely have burn injuries and smoke inhalation injuries that require extensive treatment.

Also important is that these injuries can cause a substantial amount of pain and suffering as well as disfigurement. These are both injuries under New York Law that you can be compensated for monetarily if you were injured in a fire that was not your fault.

By understanding how fires start, you can learn how to prevent them and how to identify whether another person caused the fire. Fires can be started in a number of ways, including:

• Cooking. According to the United State Fire Administration (USFA), 50% of all residential fires is caused by cooking. The USFA states that 29.1% of non-residential fires are caused by cooking.
• Heating. The USFA estimates that 12.5% of all residential fires are started by a heating malfunction. In non-residential fires, that number drops to 9.0%.
• Electrical Malfunction. Electrical malfunctions cause an estimated 6.3% of home fires and 8.1% of non-home fires.
• Intentional Acts. Sadly, 8.9% of non-home fires are set on purpose. That number drops to 4.2% in residence fires.
• Unintentional or carelessness. According to the USFA, 5.8% of home fires are started by carelessness. This number jumps to 10% in non-home building fires.

Other, less common causes of fires in homes and other buildings include electrical malfunction, appliances, open flame, equipment malfunction and smoking.

Another place that fires can happen is in your vehicle. These are especially dangerous since gasoline is highly flammable. According to the USFA, in 2013 there were 188,000 vehicle fires. Many vehicle fires are unintentional. About 20% are due to equipment failure.