Fire departments in the United States responded to nearly 1.3 million fire calls in 2015. The U.S. fire problem no longer ranks as the most severe of the industrialized nations, yet thousands of Americans die each year, tens of thousands of people are injured, and property losses reach billions of dollars. There are huge indirect costs of fire as well, including temporary lodging, lost business revenues, medical expenses, psychological damage, and others. To put this into context, the annual losses from floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and other natural disasters combined in the U.S. average just a fraction of those from fires. The public, the media and local governments are generally unaware of the magnitude and seriousness of the fire problem and how it affects individuals and their families, communities and the nation.