An estimated 3,900 hotel and motel fires caused 15 deaths, 100 injuries and $100 million in property loss from 2014 to 2016, according to a U.S. Fire Administration report compiled from National Fire Incident Reporting System statistics.
More than half, 56 percent, of the hotel and motel fires were characterized as small, confined fires. Nineteen percent of these fires occurred from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The report found cooking was the leading cause of these fires, 55 percent, and 95 percent of these were confined, small fires.
Fires that spread outside the room of origin were caused by open flames, electrical malfunctions and other actions at 13 percent each.
Of all residential fires, 1 percent occurred in hotels and motels. Fifty percent of other residential non-confined fires spread to other rooms. Twenty-one percent of the non-confined fires were primarily in bedrooms.
The leading factor for igniting non-confined fires was the misuse of products at 40 percent. Ten percent of smoke alarms and 45 percent of automated extinguishing systems (AESs) were not present in non-confined fires at hotels and motels.
USFA concluded that “stricter codes and resulting changes in hotel and motel safety have contributed to the substantial decrease in the number of hotel and motel fires.”
