Home cooking fires in 2021-2023: what CPSC's latest estimates show for ranges, ovens and microwaves

On October 13, 2026, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission published its staff's latest national estimates of losses from unintentional residential fires attended by fire departments, covering 2021 through 2023. Cooking equipment again accounted for the largest share. CPSC staff estimate an annual average of 147,800 cooking equipment fires, 42.2% of all residential fires in the period, with 210 deaths and 2,490 injuries a year. The report says many of those casualties were associated with range and oven fires.

The estimates come from the U.S. Fire Administration's National Fire Incident Reporting System and the National Fire Protection Association's survey of fire departments. The report notes that it was prepared by CPSC staff and has not been reviewed or approved by the Commission.

What the numbers show by appliance

The appliance rows add up to far less than the total because the report does not assign most cooking fires to an appliance. Fire departments record a fire involving the contents of a cooking vessel that does not spread beyond it as a “confined” fire, with only limited detail and rarely the equipment involved, so CPSC staff count those in the cooking total but not in any appliance row. The report puts confined cooking fires at 128,800 in 2021, 134,300 in 2022 and 124,100 in 2023, between 87% and 88% of cooking equipment fires in each year by our calculation. It adds that “ranges certainly are involved in some confined fires,” and that the same is true of microwave ovens.

Among the fires that could be traced, electric ranges and ovens were linked to about 10,100 a year and gas ranges and ovens to 1,800. The report does not give the number of homes that cook with each fuel, so in our reading these counts cannot show which type is safer per household. Other electric cooking equipment accounts for far fewer fires: an estimated 200 a year involving range or oven hoods, 100 each for deep fat fryers and grills, and 800 for small heat-producing appliances. Elsewhere in the kitchen, refrigerators and freezers were linked to 900 fires a year and dishwashers to 400.

Counting by what burned first, rather than by appliance, gives a similar picture. CPSC staff put fires in which cookware or food in cookware was the first item ignited at an annual average of 144,600 in 2021-2023, with 180 deaths, 2,580 injuries and $577.4 million in property losses a year. Confined cooking fires are included in that category, because cooking materials are most likely the item first ignited.

How the three years compare

Year by year, cooking equipment fires rose from 148,000 in 2021 to 153,800 in 2022, then fell to 141,800 in 2023, about 4% below 2021 by our calculation. Cooking fire deaths were estimated at 220, 180 and 220. Property losses from range and oven fires climbed from $290.6 million in 2021 to $378.7 million in 2023, a rise of about 30% in dollars that the report does not adjust for inflation. Across all causes, the report estimates an annual average of 350,700 residential fires, 2,480 deaths and $9.62 billion in property losses. By age, older people were the most likely to die in home fires of any cause: 1.6 deaths per 100,000 people aged 65 to 74 and 2.1 for those 75 and over, against 0.7 overall.

The Thanksgiving peak, and what CPSC advises

In its holiday cooking release of November 19, 2025, CPSC said cooking fires spike on Thanksgiving Day, “with an average of 1,400 cooking fires,” more than three times the daily average. That release cited the agency's earlier report for 2019 to 2021, which put cooking at 45% of residential fires; the new report's figure for 2021 to 2023 is 42.2%.

The same release lists CPSC's advice, including: never leave cooking food unattended, keep children and pets at least three feet from the cooking area, and smother a grease fire by sliding a lid over the pan and turning off the burner, never using water. For turkey fryers, which it says “create particular risks,” CPSC tells cooks to follow the manufacturer's instructions, not to overheat or overfill the oil, and to keep the fryer out of the garage, off the deck and away from the house. It also calls for a working smoke alarm on each level of the home, outside sleeping areas and inside bedrooms.