Leading Causes of Office Fires

In a report released by the Nation Fire Protection Association Fire Analysis and Research Division, office fire statistics are analyzed and made public.

Here are a few highlights from the report. Read the entire analysis here.

The report gives information about structure fires in office properties which include business offices, banks, veterinary or research offices, engineering, mailing firms and post offices.

Peak times of day for fires were between noon and 2:00 PM. There were fewer fires on the weekends, since fewer people work on the weekends, but in spite of the lower number of weekend fires accounted for 31% of associated property loss.

The high rate of loss that occurred when the offices were less populated show how important it is to have automatic systems that can not only detect but also extinguish fires when no one is present.

• Greater than one in every four of the fires (29%) was a cooking equipment fire
• Intentionally set fires caused the biggest share of property damage
• Electrical and light equipment fires caused the second most office fires
• 22% of the fires started in the kitchen or cooking area
• 2% of the fires of the fires began in the attic or ceiling area, but these fires caused 13% of the property damage.

Wet pipe sprinklers were very effective in controlling fires and saving lives. When the fires were large enough to trigger the sprinkler system, they operated 90% of the time and were effective in 88% of the fires.

Compared to offices without automatic extinguishing equipment, deaths per 1,000 fires were 62% lower in those that had wet pipe sprinklers.

Is your office adequately protected from fire? If you are not sure, it is time to call a professional for help. Best Security Products specializes in business and commercial fire security systems.