A compiled reference of 41 verified statistics on restaurant fires and commercial kitchen exhaust cleaning: how many restaurant fires U.S. fire departments respond to each year and what they cost, the share caused by cooking equipment and by failure to clean, when in the day and week fires start, how far they spread, the exhaust-hood inspection intervals set by the adopted fire code and the records it requires, the suppression-system and Class K extinguisher rules, and what federal agencies actually pay for kitchen exhaust hood cleaning contracts. Every figure is drawn from a named public source (the National Fire Protection Association, the U.S. Fire Administration, the International Fire Code as published by a municipal fire department, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and USAspending.gov federal award records) and independently checked before publishing. Two numbers that circulate on every hood-cleaning website, the "75% fire-risk reduction" and the "60% of businesses never reopen," could not be traced to any primary source and do not appear here.
Key statistics
7 highlights from this report
Key statistics
Key takeaways
Most restaurant fires are small: two-thirds never leave the object they started in. The money is in the tail. The one fire in eight that reaches the building causes seven-tenths of all the damage, and a fire that escapes its container costs seventy times one that does not. Failure to clean is the single largest contributing factor NFPA identifies, ahead of electrical and mechanical failure, which is why the fire code sets an inspection interval for every grease hood and requires a dated, attributable record of each inspection and cleaning.
Failure to clean was a factor in 22% of restaurant and bar fires, about 1,650 a year.
7,410 restaurant and bar fires a year, $165 million in damage, 3 deaths, 110 injuries.
Cooking equipment starts 61% of restaurant fires; deep fryers alone start 21%.
The 12% of fires that reach the building cause 69% of the damage.
A fire that escapes containment costs $59,000 on average; one that stays in the fryer costs $840.
Restaurant fires peak from 10 to 11 a.m., during lunch prep.
The fire code sets hood inspection at 1, 3, 6, or 12 months by cooking volume, and cleaning is triggered by what the inspection finds.
How we built this report
Every figure was compiled in September 2026 from named public sources and verified against the original document or dataset before publishing.
- Compiled from primary sources
NFPA's occupancy report on eating and drinking establishment fires, two U.S. Fire Administration restaurant-fire reports built on the National Fire Incident Reporting System, the International Fire Code exhaust and suppression sections as published verbatim by a municipal fire department, Bureau of Labor Statistics establishment counts, and federal contract awards from USAspending.gov.
- Two scopes, kept apart
NFPA's 7,410 fires a year covers all eating and drinking establishments including bars; USFA's 5,600 covers restaurants only, in different years. They are not a trend and are never presented as one.
- Vendor price claims excluded
No association or agency publishes a national per-cleaning hood price, and every range on the hood-cleaning websites is that vendor's own quote. In their place we compiled what federal agencies actually paid across 23 hood-cleaning contracts, which is public and itemized.
- Folklore removed
The "75% fire-risk reduction attributed to NFPA" appears in no NFPA document, and the "60% of businesses never reopen" claim has no retrievable FEMA source. Neither appears on this page.
- Independent review
Written by one co-founder, reviewed by the other before publishing.
Scope caveat: the fire-incidence figures are the most recent national estimates their publishers have released (NFPA 2010-2014, USFA 2011-2013 and 2007-2009) and are dated as such. NFIRS dollar-loss averages are fire-department damage estimates, not insurance settlements. The fire code intervals are the International Fire Code as adopted by one Kansas city and confirmed against a 2021-edition state code; local amendments vary. The federal contract values are multi-year, multi-building service contracts, not per-cleaning prices.
Where the money is: fire spread versus damage
NFPA, eating and drinking establishment structure fires, 2010-2014 annual averagesShare of fires
Share of direct property damage
The middle band of the first bar is the remainder after NFPA's 68% confined-to-object and 12% reached-the-building figures; NFPA reports the intermediate categories separately.
Restaurant fires and hood cleaning, by the numbers
All 41 figures, grouped by theme, each from a named public source and independently verified, or computed by RapidEye from named public records with the method stated, followed by three widely repeated claims that could not be verified.
How often restaurants burn, and what it costs
According to the National Fire Protection Association's 2017 report on structure fires in eating and drinking establishments (nfpa.org), written by Richard Campbell, U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated 7,410 such fires a year between 2010 and 2014, causing an annual average of three civilian deaths, 110 civilian injuries, and $165 million in direct property damage. Restaurants and cafeterias accounted for 78% of those fires and 72% of the damage; bars and nightclubs were 10% of fires but 60% of the deaths. The U.S. Fire Administration (usfa.fema.gov), whose restaurant category is narrower, estimated 5,600 restaurant fires a year for 2011-2013 with $116 million in property damage and an average loss of $22,540 per fire, down from 5,900 a year and $172 million for 2007-2009.
Statistic 1
U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated 7,410 structure fires a year in eating and drinking establishments between 2010 and 2014, causing three civilian deaths, 110 civilian injuries, and $165 million in direct property damage annually.
National Fire Protection Association, eating and drinking establishment fire report (2017)
Statistic 2
Restaurants and cafeterias accounted for 5,810 of those fires a year (78%) and $119 million of the damage (72%); bars and nightclubs were 770 fires (10%) but 60% of the civilian deaths.
National Fire Protection Association (2017)
Statistic 3
An estimated 5,600 restaurant fires a year were reported to U.S. fire departments from 2011 to 2013, causing fewer than five deaths, 100 injuries, and $116 million in property damage annually.
U.S. Fire Administration, restaurant fire data snapshot (2015)
Statistic 4
The average dollar loss per restaurant fire was $22,540 (2011-2013), versus $34,650 for all other eating and drinking establishments and $30,100 for other nonresidential building fires.
U.S. Fire Administration, restaurant fire data snapshot (2015)
Statistic 5
Restaurant fires cause 11.0 injuries and 0.3 fatalities per 1,000 fires, versus 8.1 injuries and 1.8 fatalities per 1,000 in other eating and drinking establishments.
U.S. Fire Administration, restaurant fire data snapshot (2015)
Statistic 6
An estimated 5,900 restaurant building fires a year occurred from 2007 to 2009, causing about 75 injuries and $172 million in property loss annually.
U.S. Fire Administration, restaurant building fires topical report (2011)
Statistic 7
There were 619,919 restaurant and other eating-place establishments in the U.S. in 2024, employing 10,994,800 people; the count grew from 514,175 in 2014, about 21% in a decade.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, NAICS 7225 (2024)
Statistic 8
Set against the 514,175 eating-place establishments counted in 2014, USFA's 5,600 restaurant fires a year works out to roughly 10.9 fires per 1,000 establishments, about one fire for every 92 restaurants each year.
RapidEye Research calculation on USFA (2011-2013) and BLS QCEW (2014) figures
What this means: The two federal figures describe different universes (NFPA counts bars and nightclubs, USFA does not, and the years differ), so they are not a trend line. Read together they say the same thing: roughly one restaurant in a hundred has a reportable fire each year, and the average one costs a little over twenty thousand dollars.
What starts the fire, and the failure-to-clean share
According to NFPA (nfpa.org), cooking equipment was involved in 61% of eating and drinking establishment fires and 38% of direct property damage; deep fryers alone were involved in 21% of fires, ranges or cooktops in 14%, and cooking materials were the item first ignited in 43%. Among contributing factors, failure to clean led the list at 22% of fires, about 1,650 a year, ahead of electrical failure (14%) and mechanical failure (12%). The grease hood or duct exhaust fan was the equipment involved in only 150 fires a year, but those fires caused $7 million in annual damage, double their share. The U.S. Fire Administration's 2007-2009 restaurant report tells a different story for the fires that escape containment: electrical malfunction, not cooking, led at 21%.
Statistic 9
Cooking equipment was the leading cause of eating and drinking establishment fires, accounting for 61% of fires (4,510 a year) and 38% of direct property damage.
National Fire Protection Association (2017)
Statistic 10
Failure to clean was a factor in 22% of eating and drinking establishment fires, about 1,650 a year, and $16 million in annual damage.
National Fire Protection Association, Table 8 (2017)
Statistic 11
Failure to clean led all contributing factors, ahead of electrical failure or malfunction (14%, 1,040 fires a year) and mechanical failure or malfunction (12%, 880 fires).
National Fire Protection Association, Table 8 (2017)
Statistic 12
Deep fryers were involved in 21% of eating and drinking establishment fires (1,580 a year), 28% of civilian injuries, and $27 million in annual property damage; ranges or cooktops were involved in 14%.
National Fire Protection Association, Table 6 (2017)
Statistic 13
The grease hood or duct exhaust fan was the equipment involved in ignition in 150 fires a year (2%), but those fires caused $7 million in annual damage (4%).
National Fire Protection Association, Table 6 (2017)
Statistic 14
Electrical distribution and lighting equipment caused 9% of fires but 21% of direct property damage; intentional fires were 4% of fires but 10% of damage; smoking materials caused 7% of each.
National Fire Protection Association (2017)
Statistic 15
Cooking materials were the item first ignited in 43% of eating and drinking establishment fires, and 59% of fires (4,380 a year) started in the kitchen or cooking area.
National Fire Protection Association (2017)
Statistic 16
Cooking caused 63.5% of restaurant fires from 2011 to 2013; heating 7.4%, electrical malfunction 6.5%, and all other causes 22.6%.
U.S. Fire Administration, restaurant fire data snapshot (2015)
Statistic 17
Among the larger nonconfined restaurant fires of 2007-2009, electrical malfunction was the leading cause at 21% and cooking second at 13%; failure to clean was a factor in 12%.
U.S. Fire Administration, restaurant building fires topical report (2011)
Statistic 18
Deep fryers (9%), ranges (7%), and miscellaneous kitchen equipment (5%) were the leading equipment involved in ignition of nonconfined restaurant fires, and 3% of those fires started in ducts.
U.S. Fire Administration, restaurant building fires topical report (2011)
What this means: Cooking starts most restaurant fires, but cleanliness decides how many there are: failure to clean is the largest single contributing factor NFPA can name. The USFA 12% and the NFPA 22% are not in conflict; USFA's figure covers only the fires that escaped containment, where grease in the hood is one of several ways a small fire becomes a large one.
When fires start and how far they spread
According to the U.S. Fire Administration (usfa.fema.gov), restaurant fires were most likely to occur from mid-morning through noon, with a peak between 10 and 11 a.m. as kitchens prepared for lunch, and the day-of-week distribution is nearly flat, with Saturday and Sunday highest at 14.8% each. Most fires are small: 68% were limited to the object of origin and only 14% spread beyond the room. NFPA (nfpa.org) puts the money in that tail: the 12% of fires that reached the building of origin caused 69% of all direct property damage. USFA's 2007-2009 loss table makes the same point in dollars, with an average loss of $840 for a confined fire against $59,000 for a nonconfined one.
Statistic 19
Restaurant fires peak from 10 to 11 a.m. (6.3% of all restaurant fires), during lunch preparation, not during dinner service.
U.S. Fire Administration, restaurant fire data snapshot (2015)
Statistic 20
Restaurant fires are spread almost evenly across the week: Saturday and Sunday highest at 14.8% each, Tuesday lowest at 13.8%.
U.S. Fire Administration, restaurant fire data snapshot (2015)
Statistic 21
68% of restaurant fires were limited to the object of origin, 18% to the room of origin, and 14% spread beyond the room.
U.S. Fire Administration, restaurant fire data snapshot (2015)
Statistic 22
Two-thirds (68%) of eating and drinking establishment fires did not spread beyond the object of origin, but the 12% that reached the building of origin (910 a year) caused 69% of all direct property damage, $113 million of $165 million.
National Fire Protection Association, Table 12 (2017)
Statistic 23
The average loss for a nonconfined restaurant building fire was $59,000, versus $840 for a fire confined to its container, 2007-2009.
U.S. Fire Administration, restaurant building fires topical report, Table 2 (2011)
Statistic 24
57% of restaurant building fires were confined fires, and 46.3% of all restaurant building fires were cooking fires confined to their container.
U.S. Fire Administration, restaurant building fires topical report, Table 1 (2011)
Statistic 25
Automatic extinguishing systems, mainly sprinklers, were present in 47% of nonconfined restaurant building fires and absent in 42%; smoke alarms were reported present in only 44% (raw NFIRS counts, 2007-2009).
U.S. Fire Administration, restaurant building fires topical report (2011)
What this means: Fire prevention in a restaurant is a containment problem. The fryer fire that stays in the fryer is an $840 incident; the same fire that finds a grease-loaded duct is a $59,000 one. The morning peak is a scheduling insight too: the highest-risk hour is prep, when the line is heating up and attention is elsewhere.
Hood inspection intervals and records the fire code requires
NFPA 96 is a paywalled standard, so the intervals here come from the International Fire Code as published verbatim by the City of Lawrence, Kansas Fire Medical department (lawrenceks.org) in its 2015 IFC Section 609 handout, and confirmed unchanged as Table 606.3.3.1 in the 2021 edition. The code sets an inspection frequency, not a cleaning frequency: hoods, grease-removal devices, fans, and ducts are inspected monthly for solid-fuel cooking, quarterly for high-volume operations such as 24-hour cooking, charbroiling, or wok cooking, semiannually for all other cooking, and annually for low-volume operations. If the inspection finds grease, the components must be cleaned to the ANSI/IKECA C10 standard, and every inspection and cleaning must be recorded with the person, the company, and the date.
Statistic 26
Commercial kitchen exhaust systems must be inspected every 1 month for solid-fuel cooking, 3 months for high-volume operations (24-hour cooking, charbroiling, wok cooking), 6 months for all other cooking, and 12 months for low-volume operations such as places of worship and seasonal businesses.
International Fire Code Table 609.3.3.1 (2015) / 606.3.3.1 (2021), as published by Lawrence, Kansas Fire Medical
Statistic 27
If an inspection finds that hoods, grease-removal devices, fans, ducts, or other appurtenances have an accumulation of grease, they must be cleaned in accordance with ANSI/IKECA C10.
International Fire Code section 609.3.3.2 (2015), as published by Lawrence, Kansas Fire Medical
Statistic 28
Inspection records must state the individual and company performing the inspection, a description of it, and when it took place; cleaning records must state who performed the cleaning and when; both must be completed after each event and maintained.
International Fire Code section 609.3.3.3 (2015), as published by Lawrence, Kansas Fire Medical
Statistic 29
After each hood or duct inspection a tag with the service provider's name, address, telephone number, and date of service must be posted in a conspicuous location, and prior tags covered or removed.
International Fire Code section 609.3.3.3.1 (2015), as published by Lawrence, Kansas Fire Medical
Statistic 30
A Type I hood is required at or above all commercial cooking appliances, and domestic appliances used commercially, that produce grease vapors.
International Fire Code section 609.2 (2015), as published by Lawrence, Kansas Fire Medical
What this means: Every vendor page restates the 1-3-6-12 month table as a cleaning schedule. It is an inspection schedule, and the cleaning standard is a separate document. What the code actually demands of the operator is proof: a dated, attributable record of each inspection and cleaning, and a visible tag. A photo of the tag and the duct interior, with a timestamp, is exactly the artifact the code describes, which is why our commercial kitchen deep cleaning checklist rates hood and duct items by whether a photo can prove them.
Suppression systems and Class K extinguishers
According to International Fire Code Section 904.12 as published by Lawrence, Kansas Fire Medical (lawrenceks.org), pre-engineered wet- and dry-chemical extinguishing systems over commercial cooking must be tested to UL 300, installed to NFPA 17A (wet) or NFPA 17 (dry), serviced at least every six months and after any activation by qualified individuals, with a certificate of inspection sent to the fire code official. Fusible links and sprinkler heads in the system are replaced at least annually. Actuation must automatically shut off fuel or power to the cooking equipment with a manual reset, the manual pull station sits 10 to 20 feet from the exhaust system at 42 to 48 inches above the floor, and a Class K extinguisher must be within 30 feet of travel from the cooking equipment.
Statistic 31
Automatic fire-extinguishing systems protecting commercial cooking must be serviced at least every six months and after any activation, by qualified individuals, with a certificate of inspection forwarded to the fire code official.
International Fire Code section 904.12.6.2 (2015), as published by Lawrence, Kansas Fire Medical
Statistic 32
Fusible links and automatic sprinkler heads in commercial cooking suppression systems must be replaced at least annually; frangible bulbs are exempt.
International Fire Code section 904.12.6.3 (2015), as published by Lawrence, Kansas Fire Medical
Statistic 33
Pre-engineered dry- and wet-chemical extinguishing systems for commercial cooking must be tested to UL 300 and listed for the application; wet-chemical systems follow NFPA 17A and dry-chemical systems NFPA 17.
International Fire Code section 904.12 (2015), as published by Lawrence, Kansas Fire Medical
Statistic 34
Actuation of the extinguishing system must automatically shut down the fuel or electrical supply to the cooking equipment, and the reset must be manual.
International Fire Code section 904.12.2 (2015), as published by Lawrence, Kansas Fire Medical
Statistic 35
The manual pull station must be 10 to 20 feet from the kitchen exhaust system, 42 to 48 inches above the floor, and require no more than 40 pounds of force and 14 inches of travel to actuate.
International Fire Code section 904.12.1 (2015), as published by Lawrence, Kansas Fire Medical
Statistic 36
A Class K portable extinguisher must be within 30 feet of travel from commercial cooking equipment; one 1.5-gallon unit covers up to four fryers of 80 pounds capacity each, with one more per additional group of four.
International Fire Code sections 904.12.5 and 904.12.5.2 (2015), as published by Lawrence, Kansas Fire Medical
Statistic 37
Solid-fuel cooking appliances with fireboxes of 5 cubic feet or less require a 2.5-gallon, or two 1.5-gallon, Class K wet-chemical extinguishers, hooded or not.
International Fire Code section 904.12.5.1 (2015), as published by Lawrence, Kansas Fire Medical
What this means: Almost every suppression requirement is visually checkable: the tag date on the system, the pull station's height and distance, the Class K extinguisher's location, the annual link replacement. They are the items an inspector photographs first and the items most often out of date.
What hood cleaning actually costs: the public record
No association or federal agency publishes a national per-cleaning price for commercial hood cleaning, and every range on the hood-cleaning websites is that vendor's own quote. The one itemized public record is federal procurement. According to award data on USAspending.gov, retrieved September 1, 2026, federal agencies awarded 23 contracts whose descriptions name kitchen exhaust hood cleaning between January 2015 and August 2026, totaling $1,599,802, with a median award of $53,865, a minimum of $8,800, and a maximum of $305,070. These are multi-year, multi-building service contracts, not per-hood prices, and they are presented as what the government pays, not as a market rate.
Statistic 38
Federal agencies awarded 23 contracts naming kitchen exhaust hood cleaning between January 2015 and August 2026, totaling $1,599,802, with a median award of $53,865.
RapidEye Research analysis of USAspending.gov award records (2026)
Statistic 39
The largest was a $305,070 Department of Defense award for kitchen exhaust hood cleaning services running September 2021 through August 2026; the smallest was an $8,800 Department of Veterans Affairs award.
USAspending.gov award records (2026)
Statistic 40
A Department of Veterans Affairs hood-cleaning award for one medical center ran $90,300 over five years, May 2020 through April 2025, about $18,000 a year for a single institutional kitchen complex.
USAspending.gov award records; RapidEye Research arithmetic (2026)
Statistic 41
Full-service restaurants alone numbered 264,208 establishments with 5,348,875 employees in 2024, the population most exposed to the semiannual inspection interval.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, NAICS 722511 (2024)
What this means: The honest answer to "what does hood cleaning cost" is that nobody independent has measured it, and the only public prices are government contracts that bundle years and buildings. A writer who needs a defensible dollar figure has the NFPA damage numbers instead: $16 million a year in fires where failure to clean was a factor, against a $59,000 average loss when a fire escapes containment.
The numbers we could not verify
Three figures appear on nearly every hood-cleaning and fire-protection website and none survived a trace to a primary source. They are listed so readers do not have to re-chase them.
Unverified claim 1
"Professional hood cleaning reduces the risk of kitchen fires by up to 75%, according to NFPA." No NFPA document contains it. NFPA 96 is a standard, not a study, and NFPA's own occupancy report gives no risk-reduction estimate. The real NFPA finding is that failure to clean was a factor in 22% of fires.
Traced through vendor and franchise blogs only
Unverified claim 2
"60% (or 40%) of businesses never reopen after a fire or disaster, according to FEMA." No FEMA publication stating it could be located; secondary coverage attributes it variously to FEMA, FLASH, and the SBA at incompatible percentages.
Traced through insurance and continuity blogs only
Unverified claim 3
The "$200 to $500 per small kitchen, $1,500 to $3,000 for large" hood cleaning price bands. Every version traces to a hood-cleaning vendor's own quoting practice; no association survey or cost index publishes a national per-cleaning price.
Vendor cost guides only
Cite this study
Academic or press use: copy a ready-made reference. RapidEye is the publisher.
Quick FAQ
How many restaurant fires happen each year in the US?
According to NFPA, U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated 7,410 structure fires a year in eating and drinking establishments from 2010 to 2014, causing three civilian deaths, 110 injuries, and $165 million in direct property damage annually. The U.S. Fire Administration's narrower restaurant category counted 5,600 fires a year for 2011-2013 with $116 million in damage. Set against roughly 514,000 eating-place establishments, a RapidEye calculation that mixes 2011-2013 fire data with a 2014 establishment count, that is about one fire for every 92 restaurants a year.
What percentage of restaurant fires are caused by failure to clean?
Failure to clean was a factor in 22% of eating and drinking establishment fires, about 1,650 a year and $16 million in annual damage, according to NFPA's 2010-2014 data. It is the largest single contributing factor, ahead of electrical failure (14%) and mechanical failure (12%). The widely repeated claim that hood cleaning cuts fire risk by 75% does not appear in any NFPA document.
How often does a commercial kitchen hood need to be cleaned?
The fire code sets an inspection interval, not a cleaning interval: monthly for solid-fuel cooking, quarterly for high-volume operations such as 24-hour cooking, charbroiling, or wok cooking, every six months for all other cooking, and annually for low-volume operations. If the inspection finds grease accumulation, the system must be cleaned to the ANSI/IKECA C10 standard, and both inspections and cleanings must be recorded with the person, company, and date.
How much does restaurant hood cleaning cost?
No association or agency publishes a national per-cleaning price, and the ranges on hood-cleaning websites are each vendor's own quotes. The only itemized public record is federal procurement: 23 federal kitchen exhaust hood cleaning contracts awarded between 2015 and 2026 totaled $1.6 million with a median award of $53,865, and a single VA medical center's five-year award ran $90,300. Those are multi-year, multi-building contracts, not per-hood prices.
What time of day do most restaurant fires start?
Between 10 and 11 a.m., according to the U.S. Fire Administration, which found restaurant fires peak during mid-morning lunch preparation rather than dinner service. Fires are spread almost evenly across the week, with Saturday and Sunday highest at 14.8% each.
Data sources
Every figure on this page traces to one of these named public sources, each checked against the original document or dataset before publishing.
National Fire Protection AssociationStructure fires in eating and drinking establishments, occupancy research report (2017)nfpa.org
U.S. Fire AdministrationRestaurant fire data snapshot (2015); restaurant building fires topical fire report (2011)usfa.fema.gov
City of Lawrence, Kansas Fire MedicalPublished 2015 International Fire Code sections 609 and 904.12 enforcement handoutslawrenceks.org
Bureau of Labor StatisticsQuarterly Census of Employment and Wages, annual establishment counts (2014, 2015, 2024)bls.gov
USAspending.govFederal contract award search, kitchen exhaust hood cleaning, 2015-2026 (RapidEye computation)usaspending.gov