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Executive
Summary
Though the
rate has significantly decreased, the United States continued into the
late 90’s with one of the highest fire death rates in the industrialized
world. Given the advancements in fire prevention, including public education,
building design, consumer product safety, and sophisticated levels of
the fire protection in this country, it is puzzling to many as to why
this is so. In an effort to identify the underlying problem(s), researchers
have been delving deeper into the extent to which human behavior affects
our fire losses.
The connection
between alcohol and the ignition, detection, and escape from the fire
has been broadly examined by numerous medical and fire protection organization
studies. A series of landmark studies undertaken by the Johns Hopkins
University and the National Bureau of Standards in the 1970’s were among
the first to discover a definitive link between alcohol consumption and
fire deaths. Many studies have now confirmed their general findings.
Alcohol intoxication
may increase the risk of initiating a fire by impairing one’s judgment
and coordination. An intoxicated individual who is smoking may also succumb
to the depressant effects of alcohol, fall asleep and drop a lit cigarette
on upholstery or clothing. Intoxication also acutely diminishes one’s
ability to detect a fire. Under the sedative effects of alcohol, an alcohol-impaired
person may fail to notice the smell of smoke, or fail to hear a smoke
alarm. Escape from a fire can be hampered by the loss of motor coordination
and mental clarity caused by alcohol, even when warning signs are heeded.
Furthermore, burns are more physiologically damaging in the presence of
alcohol.
Several researchers
have found that about half of all adult fire fatalities were under the
influence of alcohol at the time of the fire. Men have been found to consistently
outnumber women among fire casualties and do so with even greater disparity
for fire victims under the influence of alcohol. In addition, the younger
adult population (ages 15 to 34) seems to incur the greatest number of
alcohol-impaired fire casualties. Drinking behaviors that are characteristic
of various age groups and sexes may explain these findings.
Studies have
also provided conclusive evidence supporting the deleterious effects of
chronic and acute alcohol abuse on the occurrence and recovery from burn
injuries. Burn injury victims have been found to be disproportionately
likely to have been intoxicated at the time of injury or known to be heavy
drinkers. From a physiological standpoint, burn victims with histories
of alcoholism tend to have longer hospital stays, more complications,
and higher mortality rates as a result of their burns.
Questions
still remain as to the extent that alcohol affects fire losses. How do
we explain the fact that some industrialized countries with some of the
highest alcohol consumption rates per capita, e.g. Germany and the Netherlands,
have relatively low fire death rates? Researchers have suggested that
alcohol-related unintentional injuries have more to do with alcohol drinking
patterns than the total amount of alcohol consumed per capita. Who drinks,
where they drink, what they drink, and under what social, cultural, and
religious circumstances they drink are perhaps more significant factors
than the amount of alcohol consumed. A lone drinker at home is probably
at greater risk of a fire emergency than a group of people drinking at
a bar or restaurant. Moreover, the number of drinks consumed in a single
sitting seems to matter a great deal.
Alcoholics
have a disproportionately high rate of fire fatalities relative to their
percentage of the total population. Non-intoxicated fire victims also
may be affected by alcohol: they may have been entrusted to the care of
an alcohol-impaired individual. These fire fatalities would not be reported
as related to alcohol when blood alcohol levels (BALs) are taken of victims
only. As a result, the estimated number of alcohol-related fire casualties
as well as the magnitude of the problem may be underestimated. Smoking
fires are the leading cause of fire fatalities. The incidence of such
fatal fires is higher among those who are under the influence of alcohol
and most smoking-related fire fatalities have some connection to alcohol
consumption. In summary, there is a clear connection of alcohol and fire
fatalities. Unlike the connection between alcohol consumption and vehicle
fatalities, the connection is not often referred to in prevention programs,
nor has much been done to address the problem.
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