There were 7.6 deaths due to fire per million New Jerseyans in 2014, giving the state one of the lowest risks of death by fire in the nation.
In its recently published “Fire in the United States 2005-2014,” the U.S. Fire Administration ranked states based on the relative risk of death due to fire. New Jersey ranked seventh, with a relative risk of 0.7, meaning New Jerseyans were less likely to die in a fire than Americans as a whole. In total, 68 state residents died in fires in 2014. California had the smallest relative risks, 0.5 or 4.9 fire deaths per million, while Mississippi’s was the highest at 2.2 or a fire death rate of 23.7. The relative risk for the United States is set at 1.
According to the report, the reasons for and risk of fire varies widely among the states and is often a factor of climate, poverty, education, and demographics. White Americans are more likely to die in a fire than those of other races, and people aged 55 to 64 had the greatest percentage of fire deaths.