Statistical analysis reveals rising electrical fires and an 82% protective device coverage gap in residential structures, highlighting an urgent need for arc-fault detection mandates.
Key Points
Characterize electrical fire trends, evaluate ignition risk factors, and identify safety management priorities across place- and cause-level fire statistics.
Evaluated 10-year nationwide fire incident records (2016–2025) from the National Fire Data System (NFDS) in Korea.
Applied statistical hypothesis testing and risk assessment combining incident frequency, human casualties, and property damage across causes and origin locations.
Electrical fires increased by 25.4% (from 8,962 to 11,239 cases) even as total fires decreased by 11.7%, elevating electrical fires from 20.6% to 29.3% of all fire incidents.
Short circuits from insulation breakdown and unidentified causes presented the highest overall risk, yet roughly 82% of electrical fire types fall outside the detection capabilities of mandatory protective devices.
Residential settings accounted for 76.5% of electrical fire fatalities, identifying detached and apartment homes as the highest-priority facilities across occurrence, severity, and protection gap metrics.