A new study shows that the most preventable cause of house fires in Texas is unattended cooking.

The study, conducted by the Allstate Insurance Company, surveyed 50 fire departments across the state and asked Texas fire chiefs and marshals for the most common everyday activities leading to house fires.

According to the survey, the top three home fire-starters in Texas are leaving food cooking, burning candles unattended, overloading electrical outlets, misusing extension cords, and discarding cigarettes improperly.

Recommended For You

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader

Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.