A structure fire is a fire involving the structural components of various types of residential, commercial or industrial

building A building or edifice is an enclosed Structure#Load-bearing, structure with a roof, walls and window, windows, usually standing permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, a ...

s, such as barn fires. Residential buildings range from single-family detached homes and

townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of Terraced house, terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type o ...

s to

apartment An apartment (American English, Canadian English), flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), tenement (Scots English), or unit (Australian English) is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that ...

s and

tower block A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction. ...

s, or various

commercial building Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

s ranging from

office An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a po ...

s to

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

s. This is in contrast to "room and contents" fires, chimney fires, vehicle fires,

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

s or other outdoor fires. Structure fires typically have a similar response from the

fire department A fire department (North American English) or fire brigade (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a fire company, fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organi ...

that include

engines An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

, ladder trucks,

rescue squad A rescue squad is an emergency service that provides technical rescue services, and may additionally provide emergency medical services and firefighting services. Rescue squads may be standalone organizations or an integrated part of fire dep ...

s, chief officers, and an EMS unit, each of which will have specific initial assignments. The actual response and assignments will vary between fire departments. It is not unusual for some fire departments to have a predetermined mobilization plan for when a fire incident is reported in certain structures in their area. This plan may include mobilizing the nearest aerial firefighting vehicle to a tower block, or a

foam Foams are two-phase materials science, material systems where a gas is dispersed in a second, non-gaseous material, specifically, in which gas cells are enclosed by a distinct liquid or solid material. Note, this source focuses only on liquid ...

-carrying vehicle to structures known to contain certain hazardous chemicals.

Types (United States)

In the United States, according to NFPA, structures are divided into five construction types based on the severity of the fire hazard: File:Fire- Cotton Avenue, burned section, circa 1876 - DPLA - c5e660569712d1f1d37835782cdaf77f.jpeg, Remains of a structure fire on Cotton Avenue, Macon, Georgia, US. File:Burned-out house in Spokane 2018.jpg, A burned-out house

Causes of house fires

Canada

Information from Canada's National Fire Information Database shows these ignition sources for residential fires in 2014. A 2023 update from Statistics Canada confirmed that cooking equipment and smoker's material continued to be the top causes of residential fires, at 32% and 25% of total incidents respectively.

United States

Data from the U.S. Fire Administration's National Fire Incident Reporting System shows that cooking has consistently been the leading cause of residential building fires.

References

External links