PIOJ puts 2025 fire damage at nearly $10 billion

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Fires wiped out an estimated $9.9 billion in property during 2025, equal to 2.2 per cent of the $446.8 billion worth of assets judged to be at risk, according to the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ).

The figures appear in the 2025 Economic and Social Survey Jamaica, the institute’s yearly review of national conditions.

Fire brigades also faced a surge in deliberate false alarms. The survey recorded 2,711 malicious false alarm calls in 2025 — more than 54.0 per cent above the 2024 total. Almost 45.0 per cent of those came from Kingston and St Andrew (KSA), St Catherine and Manchester taken together.

Genuine fire responses climbed as well. PIOJ reported 11,048 authentic fire calls answered in 2025, up 13.0 per cent from the year before. As in 2024, St Catherine and KSA led the country for reported blazes, with 2,357 and 2,110 cases respectively.

Eight parishes logged more fires than previously, among them St Thomas and Trelawny. St Thomas jumped from 440 incidents in 2024 to 798 in 2025.

People caught directly in fire incidents numbered 1,965, a 12.8 per cent rise on 2024 and the second straight annual increase.

“The rise was primarily due to a 15.0 per cent increase in the number of individuals rendered homeless,” said PIOJ.

Civilian adults formed most of that group, at 73.5 per cent of those affected, with children at 26.1 per cent. Fire deaths, however, fell for a second year running, to 19.

Non-structural blazes again made up the bulk of activity: 9,491 cases, or 85.9 per cent of all fires, and 16.2 per cent more than the prior year. Growth was driven mainly by bush fires, up 26.2 per cent, and refuse-site fires, up 24.5 per cent.

Structural fires numbered 1,555, down 3.1 per cent. St Catherine logged the most bush fires at 1,424, ahead of St Ann’s 645. For structural incidents, KSA and St Catherine topped the list with 325 and 257 respectively — together 37.4 per cent of that class of fire.