Firefighting primarily focuses on responding to structure fires. This focus is central to firefighter and command officer training and traces back to the Philadelphia Hose Company in 1803 (Tebeau, 2003, p. 17). Each edition of Fire Officer: Principles and Practice includes a section describing the current challenges facing the fire officer. This article on structure fires is a work in progress as part of my preparation for the 6th edition, which will be released after NFPA Standard 1020 is updated in 2030.
Structure Fires
The ability to promptly obtain real-time data from the National Emergency Response Information System (NERIS) and convert that into information that includes input from computer aided dispatch (CAD) systems, recorded and time stamped radio transmissions, automatic vehicle locator (AVL) tracking, post fire investigations, and official and unofficial videos and images provides a detailed picture of our structure fire experience.
Estimated National Fire Company Exposure
The eighth annual index report from ESO Solutions provides information from 10.2 million fire company responses from their clients that use the electronic data entry from both the computer aided dispatch system and the last year of National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) incident run reports in 2025.
The call volume breaks down to:
- 66% are EMS related
- 12% are Good Intent
- 8% are Service Calls
- 7% are False Alarm or False Call
- 3% are Hazardous Condition (No Fire)
- 3% are Fire (Series 100 coded incidents)
Breaking down the 341,381 Series 100 incidents:
- 37% are structure fires
- 23% are natural vegetation fires
- 19% are rubbish fires
- 13% are mobile property, i.e. vehicle fires
ESO Solutions identifies that 61% of the 12,721 structure fires in 2025 were classified as Working Fires. Most of those 7,760 Working Fires were in residences.
Among residential structure fires, one- or two-family dwellings account for 77%, followed by multifamily dwellings at 16%. … single-family homes remain the primary concern. (Crowe et al., 2026, p. 8).”
A Structure Fire Requiring Rescue Every 4 hours
Midwest City (OK) Training Chief Brian Brush repeated the 2021 research he did while working on a master’s degree at Oklahoma State University. His original study was profound, showing that, on average, firefighters in the United States rescued 9.8 civilians from fires every day. This placed Chief Brush as a keynote speaker at the Fire Department Instructors Conference. Chief Brush revisited this issue in 2026 and shared his results in a Fire Engineering article.
Residential structure fires are where the rescues occur. In 2026, only 10 of the 1,033 victims were rescued from commercial structures.
A working apartment fire with exposures has a significant resource demand on its own. If you are dispatched to one with reports of trapped occupants, ensure you are also starting the units and staff to also potentially establish a medical group ready for triage treatment and transport of multiple victims. (Brush, 2026)
Chief Brush points out that the average number of civilians rescued from a single-family dwelling was more than one, and from a multi-family dwelling was 3.2. For January to March of 2026, an average of 11.5 civilians were rescued every day. While fire departments are responding to fewer structure fires in 2026 compared to 2021, we are encountering more fires requiring civilian rescues.
Imperatives for the Fire Officer
This means firefighters need to be competent and confident in their search, victim removal, and interior fire suppression skills. Fire officers need to be effective as fire company unit supervisors and initial incident commanders to supervise time-critical structure fires with trapped civilians. The fire department should have a deployment plan that includes paramedic or EMT caregivers focused on prompt civilian care and ambulances that arrive quickly as part of a working fire incident.
War Story: I could use some help here!
A firefighter who works in a department that operates four-firefighter engine companies that include one paramedic/firefighter, and ambulances staffed with one paramedic/firefighter and one EMT/firefighter, shared this experience:
We were the first arriving engine company at a working fire in an end-of-row townhouse. Fire was showing from Side C; we entered through the front door. We found an unconscious man while advancing the attack line. The paramedic/firefighter and I removed him to the sidewalk. I thought the medic was going to get the ALS gear from the engine, but the medic went back inside to operate the attack line. I grabbed the oxygen kit and ambulance aide bag from the engine.
The second and third arriving engine company crews passed by me before getting into the townhouse; no one stopped to help. Finally, the paramedic ambulance that was dispatched on the second alarm showed up to help. I was alone with an unconscious patient for 16 minutes.
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References
Brush, B. (2026, September 7) Counting Rescues: The Mission Metric, Five Years Later. Fire Engineering. https://www.fireengineering.com/firefighter-training/search-operations/counting-rescues-the-missing-metric-five-years-later
Crowe, R. P., Fernandez, A. R., Treichel, A., Gardner, B., & Myers, B. (2026) 2026 Fire Service Index: Incidents and Best Practices For Fire Departments. ESO Solutions.
Tebeau, M. (2003) Eating Smoke: Fire in Urban America, 1800 – 1950. The John Hopkins Press.
Feature image: Brady, M. (2013, April 26) Townhouse Fire in Largo – Harry S. Truman Drive. Prince George’s County Fire/EMS. https://pgfdpio.blogspot.com/2013/04/townhouse-fire-in-largo-harry-s-truman.html [The feature image is not related to the war story.]
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