A detailed investigation into occupant behaviours and influencing factors surrounding fatal dwelling fire incidents in Northern Ireland

Abstract

More people die in dwelling fires than fires in any other location. Despiteconsiderable efforts to prevent dwelling fire deaths they are still occurring. In order to investigate why people are still dying in dwelling fires detailed circumstances surrounding 129 fatal dwelling fires in Northern Ireland were investigated using data gleaned from coronial reports.

Compared to their share in the underlying Northern Ireland population, males, the very young and elderly, smokers, problem drinkers, those that live alone and those with a pre-existing illness were found to be over-represented among dwelling fire fatalities. In-depth analysis of the circumstances surrounding very young fatalities indicated that fire-play, having a smoker in the householder, inadequate supervision and dismissive attitudes to fire safety in the home. Further analysis of the elderly dwelling fire fatality group indicated that an age-related decline in health and mobility impairments played an important role in the fatalities. An additional analysis comparing the fatalities to those that survived the fatal fire incidents indicated that unlike fatalities, those that survived were rarely in close proximity to the seat of the fire when they became aware of the fire.

A further important finding of this research was that there were health, social and welfare issues within the home environment of the fatalities that were fundamental to their demise. These often formed barriers to implementing fire safety strategies among those most at-risk. Over-coming these barriers through a multi-disciplinary and inter-agency approach may be the key to preventing more fire deaths. It is hoped that the findings of this research will inform community firesafety strategies in the future both in Northern Ireland and further afield.

Date of Award	Jun 2014
Original language	English
Supervisor	Karen Boyce (Supervisor) & Nigel Mc Connell (Supervisor)