Research reference · verified September 11, 2026
Warehouse Fire Statistics: U.S. Incidents, Causes & Losses
Warehouse fire statistics: 1,544 estimated U.S. fires annually in 2020–2024, with 45 years of data, loss analysis and source-checked downloads.
Key warehouse fire statistics
- 42.8% of estimated U.S. warehouse-fire direct loss occurred in 2020, alongside 17.9% of estimated fires, within the 2020–2024 period. Source: Fort Wayne Dock Door Repair Research calculations from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), February 2026 supporting Table 1; nominal dollars. 2
- 1,544 warehouse structure fires occurred annually, on average, in the United States during 2020–2024, according to NFPA’s national estimates. Source: NFPA, Warehouse Structure Fires, February 2026. 1
- $314 million in annual direct property damage was associated with U.S. warehouse fires during 2020–2024, according to NFPA’s estimates. Source: NFPA, February 2026; nominal dollars, not total economic losses. 1
- Approximately $203,000 in nominal direct loss per estimated U.S. warehouse fire is the aggregate ratio for 2020–2024—not a median incident or typical insurance claim. Source: our calculation of $1.569 billion divided by 7,718 estimated fires from NFPA Table 1. 2
- Fires between midnight and 6 a.m. represented 18% of estimated U.S. warehouse fires but 40% of direct property loss during 2020–2024. Source: NFPA, February 2026, Figure 5. 1
- 1,689 warehouse structure fires were estimated for the United States in 2024. Source: NFPA, February 2026, Table 1; a single-year estimate, not the five-year annual average. 2
- Two civilian deaths and 17 civilian injuries occurred annually, on average, in U.S. warehouse fires during 2020–2024, according to NFPA’s estimates. Source: NFPA, February 2026. 1
- Occupied, operating facilities accounted for 71% of estimated U.S. warehouse fires and 92% of direct property loss during 2020–2024. Source: NFPA, February 2026, supporting Table 2. 2
Sources for this statistics block: NFPA’s February 2026 report and supporting tables; calculations by Fort Wayne Dock Door Repair Research. 1 2
U.S. warehouse fire statistics show a sharp imbalance: 2020 accounted for 42.8% of estimated direct property loss during 2020–2024, but only 17.9% of the fires. That is our calculation from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) supporting tables published in February 2026, using nominal dollars—the dollars of each incident year, not adjusted for inflation. It measures how estimated losses were distributed across five years, not the share caused by individual large fires. 2
Scope: NFPA’s warehouse category includes incidents recorded with a warehouse as the main occupancy—the property’s principal use. It excludes refrigerated storage and warehouse space within manufacturing or retail properties. These are not statistics for every building that stores goods. 1
By Fort Wayne Dock Door Repair Research
Last verified: September 11, 2026
National incident coverage: 1980–2024. Main analytical period: 2020–2024.
Contents: Loss concentration · What the finding means · Methodology · Annual frequency and report editions · The 45-year series · Causes and ignition categories · Intentional fires and unresolved causes · Time, occupancy and loss · Per-building risk · Indiana and Allen County · The 2026 reporting change · Limitations · Attribution reference · FAQ · Sources.
How much warehouse fire loss was concentrated in 2020?
Of the $1.569 billion in nominal direct loss summed from NFPA’s 2020–2024 annual estimates, $671 million—42.8%—was assigned to 2020. That year contained 1,385 of the period’s 7,718 estimated fires, or 17.9%. The shares below are original calculations from the same five annual source rows. 2
| Year | Estimated fires | Nominal direct property loss | Share of period fires | Share of period nominal loss | Nominal loss per estimated fire, approximate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 1,385 | $671 million | 17.9% | 42.8% | $484,000 |
| 2021 | 1,486 | $347 million | 19.3% | 22.1% | $234,000 |
| 2022 | 1,685 | $211 million | 21.8% | 13.4% | $125,000 |
| 2023 | 1,473 | $156 million | 19.1% | 9.9% | $106,000 |
| 2024 | 1,689 | $184 million | 21.9% | 11.7% | $109,000 |
| 2020–2024 total / aggregate ratio | 7,718 | $1,569 million | 100% | 100% | $203,000 |
Source: NFPA, Warehouse Structure Fires: Supporting Tables, February 2026, Table 1. Shares, totals and loss-per-fire ratios calculated by Fort Wayne Dock Door Repair Research. Verified September 11, 2026. 2
Individual shares are rounded to one decimal place and may not add to 100%. Per-fire amounts are rounded to the nearest $1,000. The total-row ratio divides combined losses by combined fires; it is not an unweighted average of the five annual ratios.
Dataset download: warehouse-fire-loss-concentration-2020-2024.csv — five annual rows; estimated fires; nominal and 2024-dollar direct losses; fire shares; loss shares; aggregate denominators; calculated loss per fire; formulas; source URL, table locator, edition and verification date.
What is the average direct loss per warehouse fire?
Dividing the five-year nominal loss sum by the fire-estimate sum produces $203,291, displayed here as approximately $203,000 per estimated fire:
$1,569,000,000 ÷ 7,718 = approximately $203,291.
That calculation answers a narrow question: how much estimated direct property loss corresponds to each estimated fire when the period is pooled? It does not identify the middle incident, the most common claim amount, a reconstruction budget or an insurer’s payment. The inputs contain no incident-by-incident loss distribution from which to calculate those measures. 2
How much does the five-year result depend on 2020?
A sensitivity calculation makes the influence visible. For 2021–2024 only, the same printed table contains $898 million in nominal losses and 6,333 estimated fires, yielding approximately $142,000 per estimated fire. With 2020 included, the ratio is approximately $203,000. 2
This is not an alternative national baseline. Removing the high-loss year changes the period being described. Its purpose is to show why the selected reporting window belongs next to any “average warehouse fire cost” figure.
What does the loss-concentration finding show?
The 42.8% loss share and 17.9% fire share establish an imbalance between years in NFPA’s 2020–2024 estimates. They do not reveal how many individual fires generated those losses, why 2020 differed, or what any particular warehouse is likely to lose. Those questions require different evidence. 2
The distinction is between a distribution across years and a distribution across incidents. A year can have a relatively small share of fires and a relatively large share of losses without the annual table identifying the individual events responsible.
The finding is also dollar-basis specific. Using NFPA’s inflation-adjusted column instead produces a 45.5% share for 2020: $813 million ÷ $1.786 billion, all in 2024 dollars. The headline’s 42.8% uses nominal losses throughout. Neither calculation mixes the two dollar columns. 2
That is why this reference keeps five labels attached to every main result: geography, incident period, property definition, dollar basis and source edition. Changing any one can change what the number means.
How was this dataset built?
We transcribed and checked all 45 annual rows in NFPA’s February 2026 supporting Table 1, then calculated the five-year totals, shares and ratios from the printed values. We separately checked selected ignition and loss-pattern tables, three earlier NFPA publications, EIA’s building-count definitions, and Indiana and Fort Wayne administrative publications on September 11, 2026. The resulting files are a secondary compilation with original calculations—not a new census of fire incidents.
Source collection and verification
The national annual series comes from Table 1, printed pages 2–3 of NFPA’s February 2026 supporting tables. The main report supplies the published annual averages and six-hour time-of-day comparisons. Cause status comes from Table 7; equipment, contributing factors, heat sources, areas of origin and first materials come from their separately labeled tables. 1 2
We checked the relevant PDF table and chart images against the extracted figures. For older annual-average statements, we checked the NFPA documents themselves, including hosted copies that retain their NFPA titles and edition dates. We did not substitute a host’s article for the underlying document. 3 4 5
For the regional audit, we checked the IDHS commercial-investigation table, the FIRE Types chart in each Fort Wayne annual report, and the March 2026 IDHS fire-service report. Their different reporting units remain separate. The Plainfield loss comparison uses the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s own dated summary, not an independently verified insurance valuation. 8 9 10 11 13
Calculations, units and rounding
The calculations use the following rules:
Period fire total: sum the five annual fire estimates: 1,385 + 1,486 + 1,685 + 1,473 + 1,689 = 7,718.
Period nominal loss: sum the five annual nominal losses: $671m + $347m + $211m + $156m + $184m = $1,569m.
Annual mean from printed rows: 7,718 ÷ 5 = 1,543.6 fires, and $1,569m ÷ 5 = $313.8m. These round to NFPA’s published 1,544 fires and $314 million per year.
Year’s share: annual value ÷ corresponding five-year total × 100. Fire shares use fires in both parts of the fraction; loss shares use the same dollar basis in both parts.
Loss per estimated fire: nominal loss in dollars ÷ estimated fires. For the five-year result, divide the two totals rather than averaging annual ratios.
Time or occupancy comparison: group’s published loss percentage ÷ group’s published fire percentage. This is a descriptive comparison of shares, not a per-building probability.
Unresolved or missing cause-status grouping: (295 + 269 + 224) ÷ 1,544 × 100 = 51.0%, using the published counts rather than adding their already-rounded percentages. 2
Displayed loss shares and trend changes use one decimal place. Displayed per-fire losses use the nearest $1,000. Extra decimals in downloadable calculations preserve reproducibility, not extra precision in the source estimates.
NFPA reports that its national estimates draw on the U.S. Fire Administration’s National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) and NFPA’s fire-department survey. Its tables describe adjustments for unknown or missing information and warn that rounded components may not sum to displayed totals. We retain printed source values rather than forcing totals to match by altering a row. 2
What was not combined
We did not pool NFPA national estimates, EIA building stocks, state investigation cases, department fire categories or individual incident-loss reports into one count. We did not download and deduplicate raw national incident records, calculate a local warehouse-fire census, or infer a building-level fire probability.
The reproduction script uses the verified input values bundled with this edition. Running it again repeats the arithmetic; it does not recheck a source or establish that no newer report exists.
Dataset download: warehouse-fire-statistics-2026-09-11.json — complete compilation of the annual series, five-year loss calculations, cause-status table, loss-share comparisons, regional source audit and derived metrics; source URLs and verification metadata are retained.
Reproduction file: reproduce_warehouse_fire_data.py — standard-library Python script containing the checked annual inputs, calculation formulas and validation checks.
How many warehouse fires happen each year?
NFPA’s February 2026 report estimates an annual average of 1,544 U.S. warehouse structure fires for 2020–2024. The five annual rows sum to 7,718 fires; spread across the period’s 1,827 calendar days, that is approximately 4.2 fires per day. This is a period-average conversion, not a daily incident count. 1 2
Why do published annual averages differ?
The reporting window matters. The following lookup keeps four verified NFPA editions beside the periods they describe, so a figure from one publication is not mistaken for a conflicting estimate for another period.
| NFPA publication | Incident period | Estimated fires per year | Civilian deaths per year | Civilian injuries per year | Annual direct property damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warehouse Fire Safety, November 2020 | 2014–2018 | 1,410 | 2 | 20 | $159 million |
| Warehouse Fire Safety, August 2022 | 2016–2020 | 1,450 | 2 | 16 | $283 million |
| Warehouse Structure Fires, February 2025 | 2018–2022 | 1,508 | 3 | 19 | $323 million |
| Warehouse Structure Fires, February 2026 | 2020–2024 | 1,544 | 2 | 17 | $314 million |
Source: the four named NFPA publications, checked September 11, 2026. This is an edition-to-period lookup, not an annual time series or an exhaustive archive of every NFPA edition. Dollar amounts are the publications’ stated direct-property-damage averages, not amounts revalued to a common dollar year. 1 3 4 5
These windows overlap. They must not be added to count fires across a longer period, and changes between them are not year-over-year changes. Source editions can also differ in rounding and revisions; the annual trend table below therefore uses one edition consistently.
What counts as a warehouse in these figures?
A warehouse must be the incident record’s main occupancy. Storage space in a shop or factory is not automatically a warehouse for this report, and refrigerated storage is excluded. The national estimates also concern fires reported to municipal fire departments; NFPA’s table note excludes incidents reported only to federal or state agencies or industrial fire brigades. 1 2
The casualty columns are civilian estimates. They are not a warehouse-employee-only dataset or a total of civilian and fire-service casualties. A publication year such as 2026 describes when the report was issued, not when the incidents occurred. 1
How have warehouse fires changed from 1980 to 2024?
The annual estimate fell from 4,700 U.S. warehouse fires in 1980 to 1,689 in 2024—a calculated decline of 64.1%. The shorter comparison points the other way: the 2024 estimate was 14.7% higher than 2023’s 1,473. Both calculations use NFPA’s February 2026 Table 1; they describe different intervals, not contradictory results. 2
Loss columns are in millions of dollars, except the final per-fire column.
| Year | Estimated fires | Nominal direct loss, $m | Direct loss in 2024 dollars, $m | Nominal loss per estimated fire, approximate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 4,700 | $60 | $229 | $13,000 |
| 1981 | 3,800 | $84 | $289 | $22,000 |
| 1982 | 3,500 | $58 | $188 | $17,000 |
| 1983 | 2,800 | $100 | $315 | $36,000 |
| 1984 | 2,900 | $52 | $157 | $18,000 |
| 1985 | 3,100 | $148 | $431 | $48,000 |
| 1986 | 2,600 | $48 | $137 | $18,000 |
| 1987 | 2,500 | $68 | $188 | $27,000 |
| 1988 | 2,300 | $213 | $565 | $93,000 |
| 1989 | 1,900 | $51 | $129 | $27,000 |
| 1990 | 1,900 | $95 | $228 | $50,000 |
| 1991 | 1,800 | $46 | $106 | $26,000 |
| 1992 | 1,500 | $36 | $81 | $24,000 |
| 1993 | 1,400 | $57 | $124 | $41,000 |
| 1994 | 1,500 | $62 | $131 | $41,000 |
| 1995 | 1,300 | $81 | $167 | $62,000 |
| 1996 | 1,400 | $155 | $310 | $111,000 |
| 1997 | 1,300 | $49 | $96 | $38,000 |
| 1998 | 1,200 | $40 | $77 | $33,000 |
| 1999 | 1,359 | $433 | $815 | $319,000 |
| 2000 | 1,537 | $165 | $300 | $107,000 |
| 2001 | 1,471 | $140 | $249 | $95,000 |
| 2002 | 1,382 | $135 | $236 | $98,000 |
| 2003 | 1,390 | $157 | $267 | $113,000 |
| 2004 | 1,384 | $138 | $229 | $100,000 |
| 2005 | 1,262 | $128 | $205 | $101,000 |
| 2006 | 1,356 | $76 | $118 | $56,000 |
| 2007 | 1,399 | $142 | $215 | $102,000 |
| 2008 | 1,404 | $311 | $453 | $222,000 |
| 2009 | 1,138 | $152 | $222 | $134,000 |
| 2010 | 1,168 | $123 | $177 | $105,000 |
| 2011 | 1,223 | $212 | $296 | $173,000 |
| 2012 | 1,297 | $162 | $221 | $125,000 |
| 2013 | 1,246 | $126 | $170 | $101,000 |
| 2014 | 1,300 | $112 | $149 | $86,000 |
| 2015 | 1,506 | $162 | $214 | $108,000 |
| 2016 | 1,339 | $271 | $354 | $202,000 |
| 2017 | 1,559 | $84 | $108 | $54,000 |
| 2018 | 1,357 | $168 | $210 | $124,000 |
| 2019 | 1,627 | $219 | $268 | $135,000 |
| 2020 | 1,385 | $671 | $813 | $484,000 |
| 2021 | 1,486 | $347 | $402 | $234,000 |
| 2022 | 1,685 | $211 | $226 | $125,000 |
| 2023 | 1,473 | $156 | $161 | $106,000 |
| 2024 | 1,689 | $184 | $184 | $109,000 |
Source: NFPA, Warehouse Structure Fires: Supporting Tables, February 2026, Table 1. Final column calculated by Fort Wayne Dock Door Repair Research from the same row’s nominal loss and fire estimate. Verified September 11, 2026. 2
Dataset download: warehouse-fire-annual-1980-2024.csv — 45 annual rows; year; U.S. estimated warehouse fires; nominal direct loss in millions; direct loss in 2024-dollar millions; calculated nominal loss per estimated fire; formula; source edition, table locator, URL and verification date.
Which historical comparisons are supportable?
The lowest printed fire estimate in this series is 1,138 in 2009. Comparing that trough with 2024 yields a 48.4% increase—a different result from starting in 1980. A trend claim should therefore give both endpoints, rather than saying simply that warehouse fires “are up” or “are down.” 2
For losses, 1999 and 2020 have the two highest printed inflation-adjusted values in this table: $815 million and $813 million in 2024 dollars, respectively. Their near-equality should not be turned into a claim of meaningful statistical separation. The source publishes estimates rounded in millions, not exact audited losses. 2
Why retain both dollar columns?
Nominal dollars preserve the amounts assigned to each incident year. NFPA’s 2024-dollar column puts the historical loss estimates on a common inflation-adjusted basis. We reproduce that supplied adjustment rather than introducing a separate price index or recalculating historical values. 2
For example, the 1980 loss appears as $60 million nominal and $229 million in 2024 dollars. Comparing the first number directly with a recent loss mixes purchasing-power levels; comparing the second uses NFPA’s common-dollar series. Neither column measures business interruption or establishes an insurance settlement. 2
What causes warehouse fires?
There is no single valid ranking that combines every ignition-related field in NFPA’s report. For 2020–2024, unintentional ignition accounts for 29% of estimated warehouse fires in the cause-status table, while shop tools and industrial equipment account for 19% in the equipment table. Those percentages answer different questions. 2
| Statistical field | Question it answers | Selected NFPA category | Share of estimated fires, 2020–2024 | Interpretation boundary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cause of ignition | How was the ignition classified? | Unintentional | 29% | A cause classification, not a particular machine or material |
| Equipment involved in ignition | What equipment was involved at the start? | Shop tools and industrial equipment | 19% | One combined equipment category, not two separate 19% categories |
| Equipment involved in ignition | What equipment was involved at the start? | Electrical distribution, lighting and power transfer | 16% | Preserve the full combined category; not a count of every fire involving electricity |
| Factor contributing to ignition | What condition or action contributed? | Misuse of material or product | 26% | A contributing-factor field, not a separate set of fires to add to equipment totals |
| Heat source | What supplied the initiating heat? | Operating equipment | 43% | Describes the heat source, not the same measure as equipment category |
| Material first ignited | What material burned first? | Processed wood or paper | 41% | Describes first material, not necessarily everything damaged |
Source: NFPA, February 2026 supporting Tables 6, 7, 8, 9 and 12. Measurement questions and interpretation boundaries assembled by Fort Wayne Dock Door Repair Research. Verified September 11, 2026. 2
The same incident can appear under an equipment classification, a contributing factor, a heat source and a first material. Adding these percentages would count different descriptions as though they were mutually exclusive causes. The table is a guide to reading the fields—not a combined causes chart.
Do these figures identify lithium-ion battery fires?
NFPA’s equipment table lists 29 estimated warehouse fires per year under “Battery,” representing 2% of estimated fires during 2020–2024. The row does not specify battery chemistry. Calling it a lithium-ion statistic would add information the table does not contain. 2
The same boundary applies to first materials. “Processed wood or paper” does not mean cardboard alone: the table separately includes cardboard, sawn wood, paper, plywood and other materials within that group. 2
What percentage of warehouse fires are intentional?
NFPA classifies 7% of estimated U.S. warehouse fires as intentional during 2020–2024. Separately, the published counts for cause under investigation, cause not reported and cause undetermined after investigation sum to 788 annual estimated fires—51.0% of the printed 1,544 total. That grouping describes the report’s cause information; it does not mean those fires were intentional or that their causes could never be established. 2
| Cause classification | Annual estimated fires | NFPA’s published share of all estimated fires |
|---|---|---|
| Unintentional | 453 | 29% |
| Cause under investigation | 295 | 19% |
| Cause not reported | 269 | 17% |
| Cause undetermined after investigation | 224 | 14% |
| Failure of equipment or heat source | 150 | 10% |
| Other cause | 32 | 2% |
| Intentional | 109 | 7% |
| Act of nature | 11 | 1% |
| NFPA’s printed total | 1,544 | 100% |
Source: NFPA, Warehouse Structure Fires: Supporting Tables, February 2026, Table 7. Individual counts and percentages are independently rounded. The displayed category counts sum to 1,543, not 1,544; the printed percentages sum to 99%, not 100%. Verified September 11, 2026. 2
Why does the combined unresolved-status calculation give 51.0%, not 50%?
Adding the three printed percentages gives 19% + 17% + 14% = 50%. Calculating from their printed counts gives (295 + 269 + 224) ÷ 1,544 × 100 = 51.0%. These are different arithmetic operations on already-rounded source values. The dataset retains both the source percentages and the separately labeled calculation. 2
Dataset download: warehouse-fire-cause-status-2020-2024.csv — eight source categories; estimated annual fires; NFPA’s published percentages; reporting period; source table, edition, URL, verification date and rounding note.
Is “intentional” a count of proven arson cases?
The table is an incident-statistics classification, not a court-case register. It supplies no counts of charges, convictions or final judicial findings. Its 109 estimated intentional fires per year should therefore retain NFPA’s “intentional” label rather than being recast as proven criminal cases. 2
Nor can the current table, by itself, explain why an older publication reports a different intentional-fire percentage. That requires the older report’s incident window, classification rules, denominator and treatment of unknown information. No cross-edition causal explanation is assumed here.
When and where are warehouse fire losses concentrated?
Midnight–6 a.m. accounted for 18% of estimated U.S. warehouse fires and 40% of direct loss in 2020–2024. Dividing the loss share by the fire share gives approximately 2.22, meaning that this time block’s loss share was more than twice its fire share. The calculation describes the published distribution, not a warehouse’s likelihood of catching fire overnight. 1
| Time of day | Share of estimated fires | Share of direct property loss | Loss share ÷ fire share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midnight–6 a.m. | 18% | 40% | 2.22 |
| 6 a.m.–noon | 25% | 16% | 0.64 |
| Noon–6 p.m. | 30% | 16% | 0.53 |
| 6 p.m.–midnight | 26% | 28% | 1.08 |
Source: NFPA, February 2026 report, Figure 5; 2020–2024 annual averages. Final column calculated from NFPA’s rounded shares. Fire shares sum to 99% because of source rounding. Verified September 11, 2026. 1
A ratio of 1 means the group’s loss share equals its fire share. A ratio above 1 means loss is more concentrated in that group than fire frequency is. The comparison does not establish a cause for the difference.
| Statistical field | Selected category | Share of estimated fires | Share of direct property loss | Loss share ÷ fire share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Structure status | Occupied and operating | 71% | 92% | 1.30 |
| Structure status | Vacant and unsecured | 15% | 2% | 0.13 |
| Structure status | Vacant and secured | 6% | 3% | 0.50 |
| Area of origin | Storage areas | 37% | 69% | 1.86 |
Source: NFPA, February 2026 supporting Tables 2 and 10; 2020–2024 annual averages. Final column calculated from rounded shares. These are selected categories from two different fields, not one distribution. Verified September 11, 2026. 2
“Storage areas” is a broad origin category. It includes shipping, receiving or loading areas as well as other storage locations; it is not a finding about loading docks alone. 2
These tables do not isolate the effects of staffing, detection, building size, contents value, suppression systems or maintenance. Those would require matched incident-level information and an analysis designed to distinguish their effects.
Dataset download: warehouse-fire-loss-share-indices-2020-2024.csv — eight selected time, occupancy and origin rows; fire shares; loss shares; calculated ratios; field labels; formulas; source locators, URLs and verification dates.
Can these statistics tell us a warehouse’s chance of catching fire?
Not from the NFPA and EIA figures used here. NFPA estimates 1,544 warehouse fires per year for 2020–2024, while the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates 1,004,000 warehouse-and-storage buildings for 2018. Their years, populations and units do not match closely enough to publish a building-level fire probability. 1 6 7
| Comparison point | NFPA warehouse-fire estimate | EIA warehouse-and-storage estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Period | Annual average, 2020–2024 | Building stock in 2018 |
| Unit | Estimated fire incidents | Estimated buildings |
| Main figure | 1,544 fires per year | 1,004,000 buildings |
| Property scope | Main occupancy recorded as warehouse; excludes refrigerated storage and warehouse space within manufacturing or retail properties | Includes nonrefrigerated warehouses, distribution or shipping centers, public rental storage units and refrigerated warehouses |
| Unresolved matching issue | Does not identify unique buildings affected across the period | Does not supply a matching 2020–2024 population for NFPA’s exact incident category |
Source: NFPA, February 2026 report; EIA, 2018 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), Table B11, and Warehouse and Storage building-type definitions. Comparison assembled by Fort Wayne Dock Door Repair Research. Verified September 11, 2026. 1 6 7
CBECS is EIA’s Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey. Its warehouse-and-storage category includes public rental storage units, which represented 28% of that category’s buildings in 2018. The label therefore does not mean only the large distribution buildings often associated with warehouse-fire news. 7
Even with a matching building population, a count of fires divided by buildings would first be an incident rate. A probability that a building experiences at least one fire also requires handling repeat incidents at the same building. This compilation has no such building-level identifiers.
What do the Indiana and Allen County sources actually count?
Indiana’s state investigation table lists 74 commercial fire-investigation cases for 2024, while Fort Wayne’s department report lists 272 incidents in its “Structure Fire” category. Neither figure is a warehouse-only count, and neither is a countywide warehouse total for Allen County. The audit below preserves each publication’s actual reporting unit instead of combining unlike numbers. 8 10
| Geography or reporting body | Period | Published figure | What it measures | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indiana Department of Homeland Security | 2021 | 59 | Commercial fire-investigation cases | All commercial fires or warehouse-only fires |
| Indiana Department of Homeland Security | 2022 | 76 | Commercial fire-investigation cases | All commercial fires or warehouse-only fires |
| Indiana Department of Homeland Security | 2023 | 71 | Commercial fire-investigation cases | All commercial fires or warehouse-only fires |
| Indiana Department of Homeland Security | 2024 | 74 | Commercial fire-investigation cases | All commercial fires or warehouse-only fires |
| Fort Wayne Fire Department | 2023 | 300 | Reported “Structure Fire” category | Warehouse-only incidents or a combined Allen County total |
| Fort Wayne Fire Department | 2024 | 272 | Reported “Structure Fire” category | Warehouse-only incidents or a combined Allen County total |
| Participating Indiana fire-service units | July–December 2025 | 17,090 | Runs classified as consisting of a fire | A full-year warehouse count or complete participation |
| Indiana | Not established | — | Warehouse-only annual incident total sought for this compilation | Missing value is not zero |
| Allen County | Not established | — | Countywide warehouse-only annual incident total sought for this compilation | Missing value is not zero |
Source: IDHS’s Community Risk Reduction investigation table; FWFD’s 2023 and 2024 annual reports; IDHS’s March 2026 Fire Service Reports. Source-scope classifications assembled by Fort Wayne Dock Door Repair Research. Verified September 11, 2026. 8 9 10 11
What does the 2025 statewide reporting figure leave out?
The March 2026 IDHS report covers July 1–December 31, 2025. It states that 615 local units submitted data, representing approximately 73.4% of known eligible reporting entities. It also documents records from some third-party systems that had not yet been integrated into the state’s ImageTrend database. 11
That is a reporting-coverage qualification, not evidence of fewer fires in places with missing submissions. The 17,090 figure counts fire-classified runs in the available reporting system, not warehouse-property incidents. Multiplying it to “fill in” missing departments would require assumptions this dataset does not make. 11
Dataset download: warehouse-fire-indiana-source-audit.csv — nine rows distinguishing state investigation cases, Fort Wayne structure-fire categories, July–December 2025 fire runs and unestablished warehouse-only totals; includes geography, reporting period, unit, source, verification date and scope limitations.
Why is the Plainfield loss figure kept separate from the national series?
The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s February 27, 2025 summary reports more than $500 million in property loss for the 2022 Plainfield warehouse fire. NFPA’s February 2026 Table 1 assigns $211 million in estimated direct property damage to its entire national warehouse category for 2022. 2 13
| Publication | Scope stated by the source | Figure stated by the source |
|---|---|---|
| NFPA, February 2026 supporting Table 1 | Estimated U.S. warehouse-category direct property damage in 2022 | $211 million |
| National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, February 27, 2025 summary | Property loss associated with the 2022 Plainfield mega-warehouse fire | More than $500 million |
Source: the two publications named above, checked September 11, 2026. This table records a source-comparability problem; it does not establish identical coverage, valuation methods or treatment of the Plainfield incident. 2 13
We have not established how the Plainfield incident was represented in the NFPA estimate or reconciled the two loss figures. The foundation’s figure is therefore not added to, subtracted from or substituted into the national series. Neither figure is presented as a ceiling on the physical or economic cost of all U.S. warehouse fires.
What changed in fire data reporting in 2026?
The U.S. Fire Administration’s transition schedule assigns incidents dated January 1, 2026 onward to the National Emergency Response Information System, or NERIS. It describes 2025 as a hybrid reporting year and sets January 31, 2026 as the final date for edits to 2025 NFIRS records. A 2026 publication can therefore contain older NFIRS-based estimates without being a count of 2026 incidents. 12
| Date or period | What it means | What it does not mean |
|---|---|---|
| 2020–2024 | Incident period for this page’s main NFPA estimates | Fires occurring in 2026 |
| February 2026 | Publication date of the NFPA report and supporting tables used here | The end date of its incident coverage |
| 2025 | USFA’s hybrid NFIRS/NERIS reporting year | A uniformly sourced, automatically comparable warehouse dataset |
| January 1, 2026 | Start date for incidents submitted exclusively through NERIS under USFA’s schedule | Proof that every submitted record is complete or publicly released |
| January 31, 2026 | Final date for edits to 2025 NFIRS records under that schedule | An incident date or a 2026 national fire count |
| March 2026 | Publication date of the IDHS report covering July–December 2025 | A report of incidents occurring in March 2026 |
Source: NFPA’s February 2026 publications; USFA’s NFIRS Sunset guidance; IDHS’s March 2026 Fire Service Reports. Timeline comparison assembled by Fort Wayne Dock Door Repair Research. Verified September 11, 2026. 1 2 11 12
For a future warehouse trend spanning the transition, the necessary checks are concrete: whether the property classifications match, which departments and incident dates are represented, whether revisions are included, and how duplicate records are handled. A change in a reporting system is not, by itself, evidence of a change in fire incidence.
What can this reference not establish?
This edition does not establish a complete 2026 warehouse-fire count, a warehouse-only total for Indiana or Allen County, or an individual warehouse’s annual fire probability. Its national series ends in 2024, and its principal original findings are calculations from published aggregate estimates. The missing measures are not recorded as zero.
Estimates are not an audited incident census
The source figures are national estimates. NFPA explicitly notes that projections of casualties and loss can be strongly affected by inclusion or exclusion of an unusually serious fire. The unresolved $211 million versus more than $500 million source comparison above is preserved rather than explained away with an assumed classification or reporting omission. 2 13
Annual aggregates cannot supply a typical claim
The approximately $203,000 pooled loss-per-fire ratio does not reveal the median, percentiles or distribution of individual losses. Nor does the table specify insurance coverage, payments or total business-interruption costs. Those cannot be reconstructed by relabeling the ratio.
Rounding and changing definitions constrain comparisons
The annual series preserves NFPA’s printed values; older rows often have visibly coarser fire-count precision than newer rows. We do not imply that every displayed integer is an exact observed count. The four report-edition averages are a lookup, not proof that every underlying methodology remained unchanged. 2 3 4 5
The 51.0% cause-status grouping is calculated from printed counts. It does not estimate the hidden intentional-fire share. Likewise, the equipment table’s 2% “Battery” category cannot be narrowed to lithium-ion chemistry without additional evidence. 2
Duration and live-event claims remain outside the dataset
The reviewed warehouse tables do not provide a verified national mean or median fire duration. This page is not a complete current-year incident tracker, a ranking of all large losses, or a finding that several recent incidents share a cause.
A new source would change the relevant result only after its period, scope and measurement unit are checked. A fresh calculation alone is not a source update.
How to cite this page
Publication: Fort Wayne Dock Door Repair Research
Page title: Warehouse Fire Statistics: U.S. Incidents, Causes & Losses
URL: https://fortwaynedockdoorrepair.com/research/warehouse-fire-statistics/
Last updated: September 11, 2026
Last verified: September 11, 2026
Dataset version: 2026-09-11
Data attribution: NFPA supplies the national fire and loss estimates. Fort Wayne Dock Door Repair Research supplies the calculations, transformed compilation and source-scope comparisons identified on this page.
What other questions do these warehouse fire statistics answer?
The key distinction is between NFPA’s 2020–2024 annual average of 1,544 fires and any single-year or current-year count. The answers below retain the reporting period and identify where the available tables do not support a more specific conclusion. 1 2
How many warehouse fires happen per day in the United States?
Approximately 4.2 per day as a period-average conversion for 2020–2024. The calculation divides the 7,718 estimated fires summed from NFPA’s annual table by the period’s 1,827 calendar days; it is not a daily tracking result. 2
Are warehouse fires increasing?
The answer depends on the interval. NFPA’s annual estimates rise from 1,473 in 2023 to 1,689 in 2024, a calculated 14.7% increase, but fall 64.1% between 4,700 in 1980 and 1,689 in 2024. These counts do not establish a change in per-building risk. 2
What is the most common cause of warehouse fires?
In NFPA’s 2020–2024 cause-classification table, unintentional ignition is the largest listed category at 29%, not a majority. Equipment involvement is a different field: shop tools and industrial equipment account for 19% of estimated fires. The fields should not be combined into one cause ranking. 2
What is the average cost of a warehouse fire?
The ratio of NFPA’s summed 2020–2024 nominal direct losses to estimated fires is approximately $203,000 per estimated fire. It is an aggregate direct-property-loss ratio, not a median incident cost, typical insurance claim, insurance payment or total economic cost. 2
How many warehouse fires happened in 2026?
This reference does not establish a complete 2026 total. NFPA’s February 2026 warehouse report describes the 2020–2024 incident period; its publication year must not be relabeled as the year of the fires. 1 2
How long does the average warehouse fire last?
No verified national mean or median warehouse-fire duration was established from the reports used here. Their published frequency and loss tables cannot be used to calculate one. An individual incident’s duration is not a national average. 1 2
How many warehouse fires occur in Indiana or Allen County?
A warehouse-only annual total for either geography was not established in this compilation. Indiana’s 74 commercial investigation cases in 2024 and Fort Wayne’s 272 reported structure fires in 2024 measure different, broader administrative categories—not statewide or countywide warehouse fires. 8 10
Sources for FAQ figures and boundaries: NFPA’s report and supporting tables; IDHS’s investigation table; FWFD’s 2024 report.
Which sources support this reference?
The annual series uses all 45 rows of one source edition: NFPA’s February 2026 supporting Table 1. The remaining publications support the period lookup, definitions, state and local scope audit, reporting timeline and explicitly unresolved Plainfield comparison. All sources below were checked on September 11, 2026.
- National Fire Protection Association. Tucker McGree, Warehouse Structure Fires, February 2026. National annual estimates for 2020–2024; property exclusions; time-of-day and occupancy findings.
https://content.nfpa.org/-/media/Project/Storefront/Catalog/Files/Research/NFPA-Research/Building-and-life-safety/oswarehouse.pdf?rev=082bc2bc4eca42c09414cd8b8fb80ded - National Fire Protection Association. Tucker McGree, Warehouse Structure Fires: Supporting Tables, February 2026. Table 1, annual series and loss inputs; Table 2, structure status; Table 6, equipment; Table 7, cause status; Table 8, contributing factors; Table 9, heat sources; Table 10, origin; Table 12, first material.
https://content.nfpa.org/-/media/Project/Storefront/Catalog/Files/Research/NFPA-Research/Building-and-life-safety/oswarehousetables.pdf?hash=EA17F8268ED44E027238DE51DFA529EB&rev=6718cdc007944fa295124afe2f03e115 - National Fire Protection Association. Warehouse Fire Safety, November 2020. NFPA fact sheet reporting 2014–2018 averages; copy hosted by the City of Salinas.
https://www.salinas.gov/files/sharedassets/city/v/1/fire-department/documents/warehouse-safety-fact-sheet.pdf - National Fire Protection Association. Warehouse Fire Safety, August 2022. NFPA fact sheet reporting 2016–2020 averages; copy hosted by LONG Building Technologies.
https://www.long.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/NFPA-Warehouse-Fire-Safety-Fact-Sheet.pdf - National Fire Protection Association. Tucker McGree, Warehouse Structure Fires, February 2025. NFPA report covering 2018–2022; copy hosted by LONG Building Technologies.
https://www.long.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/NFPA-Warehouse-Structure-Fire-Research.pdf - U.S. Energy Information Administration. 2018 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey, Table B11, building activities. Warehouse-and-storage building estimate; the table reports building counts in thousands.
https://www.eia.gov/consumption/commercial/data/2018/bc/pdf/b11.pdf - U.S. Energy Information Administration. 2018 CBECS: Principal Building Activities—Warehouse and Storage. Building-type scope and subcategory shares.
https://www.eia.gov/consumption/commercial/pba/warehouse-and-storage.php - Indiana Department of Homeland Security. Community Risk Reduction, IDHS Fire Investigations table. Undated live page; commercial investigation cases for 2021–2024.
https://www.in.gov/dhs/fire-and-building-safety/community-risk-reduction/ - Fort Wayne Fire Department. 2023 Annual Report, “FIRE Types” chart, PDF page 7. Reported structure-fire category.
https://www.cityoffortwayne.in.gov/Archive.aspx?ADID=220 - Fort Wayne Fire Department. 2024 Annual Report / FWFD 2024 Stats, “FIRE Types” chart, PDF page 7. Reported structure-fire category.
https://www.cityoffortwayne.in.gov/Archive.aspx?ADID=222 - Indiana Department of Homeland Security. Indiana Code §36-8-28 Fire Service Reports, March 2026; reporting period July–December 2025. Executive summary and reporting-completeness discussion.
https://www.in.gov/dhs/files/IDHS_FINAL_HB-1427-Report_AM-Edits.pdf - U.S. Fire Administration. NFIRS Sunset. Published transition guidance, page last reviewed April 20, 2025; checked September 11, 2026. Hybrid reporting, 2026 incident submissions and final NFIRS editing dates.
https://www.usfa.fema.gov/nfirs/sunset/ - National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Inside the Plainfield Mega-Warehouse Fire: Critical Lessons for Firefighters, February 27, 2025. The foundation’s published summary supplies its more-than-$500-million property-loss statement; the incident’s treatment in NFPA’s national estimate remains unestablished here.
https://www.firehero.org/2025/02/27/plainfield-mega-warehouse-fire-report/
Last verified: September 11, 2026
Editorial byline: Fort Wayne Dock Door Repair Research
Fort Wayne Dock Door Repair Research is the independent research and reference section of fortwaynedockdoorrepair.com.