Dive Brief:
- More new multifamily buildings would reduce fire deaths in the U.S., according to research by Pew Charitable Trusts. The Sept. 30 report found fire deaths in modern multifamily homes are one-sixth the rate of fire deaths in single-family homes and multifamily homes built before 2000.
- Fire deaths in multifamily buildings have been declining since the 1980s. Widely adopted factors such as self-closing doors, fire-safe materials and sprinklers have contributed to the decline.
- Despite reduced risk, “misplaced” concerns about the fire safety of new multifamily construction persist and continue to inhibit development, according to the report.
Dive Insight:
The country’s housing stock is aging. The median age of tenant-occupied housing is 43 years — “the oldest it has ever been” — creating “more fire risk,” according to the report.
Fire deaths in new apartment buildings occurred at less than one-fourth the rate of fire deaths in modern single-family homes — indicating that modern multifamily homes are “significantly safer,” per the report.
An estimated 6% of Americans live in apartment buildings built after 2000, according to Pew. Only 1% of all fire deaths in 2023 occurred in such buildings.
Fire deaths have decreased in all housing types built since 1970, but the biggest improvements are seen in multifamily buildings built after 2000.
“Among the roughly 8.3 million Americans who lived in apartments built since 2010, just four died in a residential fire in 2023,” the report stated.
Restrictive zoning laws and high construction costs have hampered new multifamily development in recent years. The Pew report recommended allowing smaller apartment buildings to have one stairway instead of the often-mandatory two, which could reduce construction costs by as much as 13% and speed development.
The rationale for the two-stairway requirement is fire safety, but recent research showed no additional fire death risk in smaller multifamily buildings with single staircases, according to Pew.
“Single-stair buildings would be much safer than the roughly 93% of American homes that are not modern multifamily buildings,” the report stated.
