Old age and fire injury

Abstract

Previous studies indicated that the elderly are vulnerable to fire injury. In this article, the nature of such vulnerability in terms of fire injury risk factors including age band, gender, occupancy level, deprivation, mobility, alcohol consumption and attempting to fight the fire is examined in a UK Fire and Rescue Service between April 2011 and April 2022. Fire injury risk was more common the greater the age of the elderly individual, more likely for males up to 74, but more likely for females above that age, possibly due to the greater proportion of females to males above age 74 in the area and time period studied. Elderly fire injuries mainly occurred in single occupancy housing and in more deprived areas. Cooking-related fire injuries accounted for 60.2% of elderly fire injuries, followed by smoking-related fire injuries (14.3%) and heating-related fire injuries (7.2%). Fire fatalities were not included in the analysis.