| Top 10 Most Costly Large-Loss Fires In U.S. History |
($ millions)
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Estimated loss (1) |
| Rank |
Date |
Location/event |
Dollars when occurred |
In 2014 dollars (2) |
| 1 |
Sep. 11, 2001 |
World Trade Center (terrorist attacks) |
$33,400 (3) |
$44,700 (3) |
| 2 |
Apr. 18, 1906 |
San Francisco Earthquake and Fire |
350 |
9,150 |
| 3 |
Oct. 8-9, 1871 |
Great Chicago Fire |
168 |
3,350 |
| 4 |
Oct. 20, 1991 |
Oakland, CA, fire storm |
1,500 |
2,640 |
| 5 |
Oct. 20, 2007 |
San Diego County, CA, The Southern California Firestorm |
1,800 |
2,030 |
| 6 |
Nov. 9, 1872 |
Great Boston Fire |
75 |
1,520 |
| 7 |
Oct. 23, 1989 |
Pasadena, Texas, polyolefin plant |
750 |
1,420 |
| 8 |
May 4, 2000 |
Los Alamos, NM, Cerro Grande wildland fire |
1,000 |
1,420 |
| 9 |
Oct. 25, 2003 |
Julian, CA, Cedar wildland fire |
1,100 |
1,320 |
| 10 |
Feb. 7, 1904 |
Baltimore, MD, Baltimore Conflagration |
50 |
1,320 |
(1) Loss estimates are from National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) records. The list is limited to fires for which some reliable dollar loss estimates exists.
(2) Adjustment to 2013 dollars made by the NFPA using the Consumer Price Index, including the U.S. Census Bureau's estimates of the index for historical times; adjusted to 2014 dollars by the Insurance Information Institute using the Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator.
(3) Differs from inflation-adjusted estimates made by other organizations due to the use of different deflators.
Source: Reproduced with permission from Large-Loss Fires in the United States, 2015 by Stephen G. Badger, ©National Fire Protection Association. www.nfpa.org/research/reports-and-statistics. |
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