Several years ago, I was in my boyfriend’s apartment when a fire in his neighbor’s kitchen exploded above. Seeing a large, blazing fire blowing out of the windows was quite frightening. Because of that experience, I’m extra cautious with kitchen appliances and other flammable electrical devices out of fear of another fire.
Having a fear of fire is not an anomaly, as most people have some form of anxiety about something bursting into flames. Fires can be super dangerous, so they can naturally ignite (no pun intended) our “fight or flight” response to protect us from potentially life-threatening consequences. However, this fear becomes a serious concern if you’re having intense anxiety about a fire that is highly unlikely to happen. If you’re experiencing an almost debilitating fear of fire that affects your day-to-day life, you might be dealing with pyrophobia (fear of fire phobia) or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Read on to learn more about these anxiety disorders and how you can seek help to address your fears.
Unsure of whether your fears are tied to a specific phobia or OCD? We can help.
Is it normal to be afraid of fire?
It is completely normal to have a fear of fire. “Most people have at least some level of fear of things that could be dangerous that would make them take normal precautions,” says Tracie Zinman-Ibrahim, MA, LMFT, CST, Chief Compliance Officer at NOCD. “Maybe you have a campfire, and you think, “I should keep water nearby, just in case.’ That would be a normal version of fearing that fire might be dangerous if out of control.”
When is a fear of fire a mental health concern?
With an understanding of what is considered a “normal” fear of fire, you might wonder when this anxiety becomes a serious mental health concern. According to Zinman-Ibrahim, you may have a specific phobia or OCD if “you’re becoming distressed over the thought of fire, fire damage, fire causing damage, and begin focusing too much time and energy on that.”
Let’s take a look at phobias and OCD related to fire.
Pyrophobia (fear of fire)
“Pyrophobia is a specific phobia where you are overly concerned with fire and where there is little to no problem with said fire,” says Zinman-Ibrahim. “You may obsess or spend a lot of time worrying about fire.”
If you have a specific phobia of fire, you may experience panic attacks as a result, although having panic attacks is not required for a phobia diagnosis.
Physical symptoms of a panic attack can include the following:
- Racing or pounding heart
- Sweating
- Chills
- Trembling
- Difficulty breathing
- Dizziness or weakness
- Numbness or tingling in your hands
- Chest pain
- Stomach pain
- Nausea
Often, people with pyrophobia will do “safety behaviors” to prevent a fire from happening.
Some examples of pyrophobia-related safety behaviors include:
- Avoiding going into houses or restaurants with fireplaces.
- Checking public spaces for any potential fire risks and looking for equipment that could put out a fire, such as sprinklers, escape routes, fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, etc.
- Avoiding using the stove, oven, toasters, and other appliances that could cause a fire.
- Avoiding dry, hot climates that are prone to wildfires.
- Unplugging charging cords, lamps, and other devices to avoid the risk of an electrical fire.
Harm OCD focused on fire
An intense fear of fire could also be a sign of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD is a chronic mental health condition characterized by intrusive thoughts, images, urges, and feelings called obsessions that cause distress. Compulsions are physical or mental behaviors performed to cope with obsessions and/or prevent something awful from occurring. People with OCD are often stuck in a cycle of obsessions and compulsions that can be difficult to escape without treatment.
What’s the relationship between the fear of fire and OCD? “If somebody was fearful of fire, they may check their outlets, unplug things before they leave the house or even before they go to sleep,” says Zinman-Ibrahim. They may think,“‘Oh no, did I leave something plugged in that could cause an electrical fire?’ or pretty much anything that goes beyond reasonable fear or measure to protect themselves from fire,” she says.
Harm OCD is an OCD subtype that can cause obsessions where you fear accidentally or purposely causing a fire. This fear can be tied back to a fear of causing harm to yourself or others, which creates feelings of guilt.
Common obsessions of fire-related OCD may include:
- I may cause a fire by leaving the stove on.
- If I do not unplug all the outlets, the house could catch on fire.
- If I spill gas while filling up my tank I could cause a fire.
- A fire could destroy my home and hurt my children.
- I went camping, and I cannot remember if I extinguished all of the ashes, so I may have caused a fire.
- My neighbor’s house burned down when I was a child, and I fear I may have been responsible for it, even though I can’t remember.
- I had an image pop in my head of me setting my house on fire and my family dying. I must want to do that.
- If I store flammable objects too close to the stove, I may cause a fire.
- If I store chemicals too close together, they will start a fire.
- What if I want to start a fire?
- What if I lose control and set something on fire?
To get rid of these intrusive thoughts about fire, you may perform the following compulsions:
- Excessively checking outlets.
- Excessively checking smoke detectors.
- Separating chemicals.
- Watching the news for possible fires that you might have caused.
- Refusing to use combustible items for fear of purposefully or accidentally starting a fire.
- Keeping certain routines around leaving the house, such as unplugging all appliances.
- Avoidance of cooking.
- Excessively checking for fires and smells of smoke.
- Ruminating on past events that involved fire.
- Expressing fears to others to get reassurance that you did not do anything.
Pyrophobia vs OCD
How can you tell the difference between a phobia and OCD? While both have similar presentations, they’re not completely the same. “If you just have a fear of fire and don’t have OCD, it’s a specific phobia,” says Zinman-Ibrahim. “If you have OCD, [a fear of fire] can show up as just one of your worries—not necessarily that you worry about fire, but you’re doing things that could potentially protect you from any problems happening.”
Another difference between the two anxiety disorders is the treatment goals—which we’ll cover more in-depth in the following section. “Often, when you have a specific phobia, we can actually overcome it,” Zinman-Ibrahim. “OCD is not overcomeable—it’s manageable. OCD will always be knocking on your door, possibly with new themes, whereas the specific phobia is just about that one thing.”
How to treat a fear of fire
Good news—if you have a phobia or harm OCD, there’s treatment available to address your fears. Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is a specialized therapy that helps you learn to confront your fears head-on through various exercises. It is an evidence-based treatment supported by decades of research to be the most effective way to treat this mental health condition, with 80% of people with OCD and even 80-90% of people with phobias seeing major improvements in their symptoms after doing ERP therapy. You’ll work with a therapist specializing in ERP to create a personalized treatment plan to effectively address your fears.
According to Zinman-Ibrahim, your therapist would start by identifying your fears, obsessions, and compulsions you have about fire. From there, they would carefully guide you through exposures to your triggers, which could include:
- Watching news stories about recent fires.
- Imagining setting your house on fire.
- Setting off fireworks.
- Burning matches.
- Leaving an appliance plugged in while not using it.
- Leaving your house and saying, “My house may burn down today.”
- Writing down worst-case scenarios involving being responsible for a fire.
Your therapist will then teach you response prevention techniques, which are strategies that help you learn to sit with the uncertainty your obsessions can bring without performing compulsions. It can be quite difficult to avoid your triggers entirely, but with ERP therapy, you’ll learn to allow your intrusive thoughts to exist and continue about your day without relying on compulsions.
Zinman-Ibrahim shares how she’s currently helping someone address their fear of fire. “There are electrical workings on one side of her closet, so she has always pushed all the clothes to the other side because it could start a fire,” Zinman-Ibrahim explains. “So we pushed her clothes over the electrical side and left them there all week to see if they caught fire—which they did not.”
As someone who witnessed a major fire first-hand, fires are no joke. They can be extremely dangerous, so it’s completely normal to err on the side of caution and safety. That said, if your fear is affecting your ability to handle your day-to-day responsibilities, it could be a sign of an underlying mental health issue like pyrophobia or OCD. If you think you have a severe fear of fire, consider working with an ERP therapist specializing in OCD and phobias to learn how to manage your fears.