Modern multifamily buildings have better fire safety outcomes than other types of housing, according to new research from The Pew Charitable Trusts. With 6% of Americans living in apartment buildings constructed since 2000, only 1% of residential fire deaths in 2023 occurred in these buildings.
For its report, Pew tracked all publicly reported residential fire deaths in 2023, the most recent year for which extensive data is available, finding that modern multifamily housing had a fire death rate one-sixth of the rate of single-family homes and multifamily residences built before 2000. The fire death rate for modern multifamily buildings was less than one-fourth of the rate in modern single-family homes.
Pew researchers identified 1,969 fatal residential fire incidents in 2023—1,641 in single-family homes and 328 in multifamily buildings—with 2,377 fatalities. In total, 1,985 people died in single-family homes and 392 in a multifamily building with two or more units.
To understand the effect of age and modern construction, researchers looked at both single-family and multifamily residences as well as older and newer buildings. They defined modern buildings as those constructed or substantially remodeled in or after 2000, because this is when many local and state governments began adopting building codes published by the International Code Council. The researchers then estimated the numbers of Americans living in each type of housing with American Community Survey data to calculate an annual fire fatality rate per million residents.
In 2023, the annual fire fatality rates for single-family homes and older multifamily homes were roughly equivalent at 7.6 and 7.7 deaths per million, respectively. In contrast, according to Pew researchers, the annual fire fatality rate for newer multifamily residences was 1.2 deaths per million.
“Put another way, among the roughly 8.3 million Americans who lived in apartments built since 2010, just four died in a residential fire in 2023. Far more people—at least 20—died in homelessness-related fires than in fires in apartments built since 2010,” according to the report.
Researchers also analyzed the results across multiple states from 2013 to 2014, indicating a consistent trend and demonstrating that 2023 was not an outlier.
The report cites several possible reasons for modern multifamily buildings having lower fire death rates. These include:
- The widespread adoption of safety features, such as sprinklers, that were added to building codes between 2000 and 2010;
- Multifamily buildings that fall under the International Building Code (IBC) are subject to more stringent requirements than buildings under the International Residential Code;
- The IBC requires sprinklers for all newly built or remodeled multifamily buildings, which are highly effective;
- Multifamily homes, 91%, were more likely to have at least one working smoke detector compared with 80% of single-family homes, according to an American Healthy Homes survey conducted in 2018-19;
- Many multifamily buildings use fire-resistive or noncombustible materials; and
- Many buildings have design features, such as fire-resistant doors and walls to prevent the spread of fire.