Quantifying the Financial Consequences of Building Fire Incidents: A Unified Assessment Framework
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: : Building fire incidents cause financial consequences worldwide, such as US $13.2 billion for property damage and US $1.9 billion for business losses in the USA in 2014. Current estimates vary across countries and predominantly focus on property damage without addressing indirect and fire protection costs. This paper develops and applies a unified cost assessment framework for building fires that enables cross-country comparisons and integrates direct, indirect and fire protection costs for residential and non-residential buildings. Cost methodologies are identified and documented for the developed workflow in the framework for selecting and adopting cost equations and adjusting inputs using severity factors, Purchasing Power Parity and the Consumer Price Index. The framework is calibrated by comparing with available estimates for England in 2019/20 and applied to the USA in 2014. Case studies are developed using the framework for England in 2024/25, the USA in 2024 and Taiwan in 2023, and demonstrate uncollected cost components, such as household costs for residential buildings of £15.2 million for England, US $405 million for the USA and NTD $53.45 million for Taiwan. The research findings provide a comprehensive tool for quantifying the cost of fire in buildings, supporting and strengthening decision-making on fire protection application and resilience planning.
Source: Fire Safety Journal
Authors: Y.H. Zhuang, E.S. Lin, X. Dai, M. Manes
Institutions: University of Liverpool, National Tsing Hua University
Language: English
Subfield: Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,770
Funder: University of Liverpool
OpenAlex ID: W7214924437