This past weekend, firefighters working to contain the widespread blazes in Texas received some much-needed assistancefrom Mother Nature in the form of rain, glorious rain.

Houston-area residents expressed relief for the half inch ofprecipitation, as one particularly destructive wildfire (which hadalready burned through 32,000 acres) was contained, along withother fires across the state. Perhaps most notably, Texas ForestService officials reported yesterday that the Bastrop fire—whichbegan during Labor Day weekend about 30 miles east of Austin,killing two people and ravaging at least 1,554 homes—was“95-percent contained.”

Although these blazes will be etched in the state’s record booksfor the magnitude of their destruction, they underscore the extentto which communities routinely rely on firefighters and other firstresponders to not only keep them safe but also to mitigate damages should disaster strike.

In support of the first responders in Texas and throughout theU.S., the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) isrecognizing National Preparedness Month by offering variouseducational resources. This includes compiling an annual reportdetailing national fire trends and the resultant fatalities and propertylosses.

For its Survey for 2010 Fire Experience, the fireanalysis and research division of the NFPA examined data from asampling of 3,000 of the 30,170 public fire departments listed inits Fire Service Inventory (FSI). The findings indicated that the1,331,500 fires attended by public fire departments in 2010 causeda total of $11,593,000,000 in property damage. For the purposes ofits analysis, the NFPA explained that “property damage” refers toall forms of direct loss to contents, structure, machinery, avehicle, vegetation, or anything else affected by the fire.Indirect losses, such as business interruption or temporary shelterexpenses are not tallied.

The Midwest claimed the highest property loss rate of allregions, with $46.0 loss per capita. When compared to the previousyear, the 2010 results pointed to a slight decrease of 1.3 percentin the number of blazes and a 7.5-percent drop in total propertydamages. The NFPA estimated that 482,000 of those blazes occurredin structures, of which 384,000 (or 80 percent) in residentialproperties. Structure fires caused $9,716,000,000 in propertydamage, a decrease of 10.4 percent from 2009. The average loss perstructure fire was $20,158, which marked a 10.6-percent drop.

The NFPA also noted that fires and fire deaths have fallen since1977, the first year of available data. “The drop inpopulation-based rates is even sharper,” the company said. “In2010, home structure fires accounted for 28 percent of the reportedfires. However, these incidents caused 85 percent of all civilianfire deaths. Vehicle fires accounted for 16 percent of the reportedfires and 10 percent of the civilian fire deaths. Roughly half (48percent) of the reported fires were outside or other non-structure,non-vehicle fires.”

Excluding the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 the averageloss per structure fire was $3,757 in 1977 and $20,158 in 2010—foran overall increase of 436 percent during the 1977-2010 period.When property loss is adjusted for inflation, the increase in theaverage structure fire loss between 1977 and 2010 is 48percent.

Arson declined somewhat in 2010: An estimated 27,500intentionally set structure fires resulted in 200 civilian deathsand $585 million in property losses. In addition, 14,000intentionally set vehicle fires occurred, causing $89 million inproperty damages.

Of course, property loss totals can change drastically from yearto year because of the impact of occasional large-loss fires.