Kitchen fires are a substantial share of residential fire activity in the United States. NFPA estimated an average of 158,400 home cooking fires per year in 2017–2021, causing 470 civilian deaths, 4,150 civilian injuries and $1.15 billion in direct property damage annually. These are U.S. national estimates; “home” includes one- and two-family homes, manufactured homes and multifamily housing, and civilian casualties exclude firefighters. NFPA, Home Cooking Fires
Contents
- How common kitchen and home cooking fires are
- When kitchen fires happen
- What starts kitchen fires
- How fires spread and cause losses
- Which cooking equipment is involved
- People, smoke alarms and outcomes
How common kitchen and home cooking fires are
The 2017–2021 NFPA estimate makes cooking the leading broad source of reported U.S. home-fire activity in the supplied national series. Home cooking fires accounted for 44% of all reported U.S. home fires. Cooking also accounted for 42% of reported home-fire injuries and 18% of reported home-fire deaths. The annual averages were:
| Measure | Annual average | Measurement period |
|---|---|---|
| Home cooking fires | 158,400 | 2017–2021 |
| Civilian deaths | 470 | 2017–2021 |
| Civilian injuries | 4,150 | 2017–2021 |
| Direct property damage | $1.15 billion | 2017–2021 |
The NFPA supporting tables use annual averages unless a different period is stated. Their figures are U.S. national estimates based on NFIRS and NFPA’s annual fire-experience survey, so they describe estimated fire activity rather than a complete count of every kitchen incident. NFPA, Home Cooking Fires: Supporting Tables
USFA estimated 167,800 residential-building cooking fires in 2023. In that series, the 2023 estimate was 11% below the 2014 level. This is a separate USFA series with its own residential-building definition and should not be merged directly with NFPA’s home-cooking estimates. For another USFA comparison, residential-building cooking fires averaged 187,500 incidents per year in 2017–2019. USFA, Residential Building Fire Causes (2014–2023) and USFA, Cooking Fires in Residential Buildings (2017–2019)
When kitchen fires happen
Cooking-fire frequency varies by day and hour. In the NFPA 2017–2021 annual averages, Sunday had the highest annual-average number of U.S. home cooking fires, at 25,324. Friday had the lowest, at 21,240. Across the seven days, the average was 22,625 incidents per day of the week. These are day-of-week annual averages, not a prediction for a particular Sunday or Friday.
The supplied hourly data also show that serious outcomes can occur during overnight hours even when the number of fires is lower than the daily totals. From midnight to 12:59 a.m., the annual average was 3,163 home cooking fires and 27 civilian deaths. From 1:00 to 1:59 a.m., the averages were 2,509 fires and 35 civilian deaths. From 2:00 to 2:59 a.m., they were 2,066 fires and 37 civilian deaths. The 5:00–5:59 a.m. hour averaged 1,442 fires and 52 civilian injuries. NFPA, Supporting Tables
In USFA’s 2017–2019 residential-building series, 40% of cooking fires occurred from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. November was the peak month, representing 9% of the annual total. A separate CPSC holiday statistic reported that Thanksgiving Day averaged 1,400 U.S. cooking fires, more than three times the daily average; this is identified as a reported 2025 holiday statistic and uses the CPSC’s stated series, not the NFPA or USFA series. CPSC, Put Safety on the Menu
What starts kitchen fires
Unattended equipment was the leading specific ignition factor in nonconfined residential-building cooking fires, accounting for 37% in 2017–2019. Nonconfined fires are those that extend beyond the cooking vessel or another defined container, so this factor applies to that subset rather than every cooking fire. USFA, Cooking Fires in Residential Buildings
NFPA’s 2017–2021 annual averages identify several other circumstances and their measured outcomes:
- Abandoned or discarded materials were linked to 14,513 home cooking fires and 32 civilian deaths per year.
- Failure to clean was linked to 13,542 fires and 93 civilian injuries per year.
- Accidentally turning equipment on or failing to turn it off was linked to 12,054 fires and 54 civilian deaths per year.
- Mechanical failure or malfunction was linked to 5,488 fires per year.
- Electrical failure or malfunction was linked to 3,992 fires and $40 million in direct property damage per year.
The first item ignited was cooking material, including food, in 104,740 home cooking fires per year. Cooking materials were also the first item ignited in 53% of home cooking fire deaths. Household utensils were the first item ignited in 8,488 fires per year. These categories describe reported ignition patterns; they are not additive totals because a fire can be classified across different dimensions. NFPA, Supporting Tables
For fires beginning with cooking materials or food, cooking oil had a rate of 46.2 injuries per 1,000 fires. The average property loss was $8,181 per cooking-oil fire in that category. The dollar figure retains the source’s stated price basis and should not be treated as a current replacement-cost estimate.
How fires spread and cause losses
Most residential-building cooking fires in the USFA 2017–2019 series were confined fires: 93.2%, compared with 6.8% nonconfined fires. Confined fires are limited to a cooking vessel or other defined container. The difference in severity between the groups was large in the same series:
| Fire classification | Fatalities per 1,000 fires | Injuries per 1,000 fires | Property loss per fire |
|---|---|---|---|
| All residential-building cooking fires | 0.4 | — | — |
| Nonconfined cooking fires | 6.3 | 86.2 | $19,300 |
The supplied USFA data do not provide comparable injury and property-loss rates in this table for confined fires, so those cells are left unfilled. Separately, NFPA reported that 80% of U.S. home cooking fires in 2017–2021 were confined to the object or pan of origin. The two confinement figures come from different series and periods and should not be read as identical measures. USFA, Cooking Fires in Residential Buildings; NFPA, Home Cooking Fires
Multifamily housing is a significant setting in the NFPA estimates. Apartment or other multifamily properties accounted for 47% of reported U.S. home cooking fires in 2017–2021. Cooking caused 72% of fires in U.S. apartments or other multifamily homes. Those percentages describe reported fire distributions, not the risk for an individual apartment resident.
Which cooking equipment is involved
Ranges or cooktops were involved in 53% of reported U.S. home cooking fires in 2017–2021. They were involved in 88% of home cooking fire deaths and 74% of home cooking fire injuries. In the supporting tables, specific cooking equipment was coded in 133,195 home cooking fires per year; ranges or cooking surfaces were involved in 84,394, and microwave ovens in 6,544.
Some equipment categories had especially high consequences per incident. Deep fryers had a rate of 6.0 civilian deaths per 1,000 home cooking fires involving that equipment, and deep-fryer fires averaged $31,127 in property loss per fire. Grill, hibachi or barbecue equipment was involved in 5,232 home cooking fires per year. These rates are equipment-specific measures and should not be compared with the overall fire count as though they were shares of all fires. NFPA, Home Cooking Fires and NFPA, Supporting Tables
The NFPA comparison between range types found that electric ranges had 2.4 times the reported-fire rate per million households of gas ranges. Electric-range households had 3.6 times the civilian fire-injury rate per million households of gas-range households. These are rates per million households, not proof that a particular appliance will cause a fire.
People, smoke alarms and outcomes
Fire-control activity accounted for 54% of nonfatal injuries in U.S. home cooking fires in the 2017–2021 annual averages. Sleeping accounted for 26% of home cooking fire deaths. People aged 65 and over accounted for 43% of deaths, while people aged 25–34 accounted for 20% of injuries. The death rate for people aged 85 and over was 7.22 per million population. NFPA, Supporting Tables
Smoke-alarm performance was recorded in the same NFPA period. Smoke alarms operated in 69% of U.S. home cooking fires, while no smoke alarm was present in 12%. Home cooking fires with no working smoke alarm accounted for 57% of civilian deaths. The figures distinguish alarm operation and presence from the broader question of whether an alarm was working; they should not be collapsed into one percentage.
Automatic extinguishing systems were present in only 9% of nonconfined residential-building cooking fires in occupied homes in the USFA 2017–2019 series. Because USFA and NFPA use their stated definitions and periods, these estimates are best read as separate evidence about cooking-fire patterns rather than combined into a single national total.