Opposing forces influence multiple-death fires
DEPARTMENTS
Dispatches
Overall, the number of multiple-death fires in the United States declined by 2.9 percent in 1986, according to a National Fire Protection Association report. The NFPA attributes the drop to gains in the way fire codes are enforced at nonresidental structures.
Unfortunately, says the NFPA, those improvements are just about offset by the number of multiple-death fires in residential structures. The association says the number of such fires has actually increased in recent years. The NFPA blames lack of smoke detectors, problems with the use of auxiliary heating devices, careless disposal of smoking materials, and the frequency with which young children are left unattended.
There were 267 multiple-death fires in the United States last year, resulting in the deaths of 998 civilians and firefighters, the NFPA reports. More than 60 percent of those killed were under the age of 15, and more than one third were six years old or younger.
The vast majority of the multipledeath fires, 237, were in residential structures; they resulted in 874 deaths. Sixteen fires in nonresidential structures claimed a total of 66 lives. The remaining 14 multiple-death fires were outside of structures—in vehicles and in forests.
Heating problems were a major cause of multiple-death fires in dwellings. Some 44 fires, claiming 170 lives, were linked to heating, with most of those fires blamed primarily on auxiliary heating devices being located too close to combustible materials. Another 23 fires—and 94 deaths—were attributed to carelessly discarded smoking materials.
In 23 fires, unattended or unsupervised children were involved in the blaze. The NFPA report says that while some of the fires were caused by heating equipment, some were started by the children themselves when they played with matches or cigarette lighters.
It should come as no surprise that the absence of smoke detectors, or poor maintenance of them, played a key role in many of the multiple-death fires. The NFPA says that in more than 80 percent of the multiple-death dwelling fires for which information was available, there were no smoke detectors present. Those fires resulted in the deaths of 537 people.
