There was an average of 15,700 fires in high-rise buildings a year with an associated $235 million in direct property damage in the period 2005-2009, according to a new report from the National Fire Protection Association.

The report, High-Rise Building Fires cites apartments, hotels, offices, and facilities that care for sick people as accounting for roughly half of all high-rise fires. Structure fires in these four property classes resulted in almost $100 million in direct property damage a year.

However, there is a longterm downward trend in high-rise fires.

Other findings from the report are:

• In 2005-2009, high-rise fires claimed the lives of 53 civilians and injured 546 others a year
• The risks of fire, fire death, and direct property damage due to fire tend to be lower in high-rise buildings than in lower buildings of the same property use
• An estimated 3% of all reported structure fires were in high-rise buildings
• Use of wet pipe sprinklers and fire detection equipment is higher in high-rise buildings than in other buildings of the same property use
• Most high-rise building fires begin on floors no higher than the 6th storey

The report also finds that the risk of a fire is greater on the lower floors for apartments, hotels and motels and facilities that care for the sick, but greater on the upper floors for office buildings.

High-Rise Building Fires report