Human factors contributing to fatal injury

This report compares fatal home fire victims with five different human factors contributing to the fatal injury: asleep, possibly impaired by alcohol or drugs, physically disabled; possibly mentally disabled, and unattended or unsupervised child under 10 years old, with all home fire victims on a variety of fire causes and circumstances.

Executive Summary
The fire safety field works hard to improve its understanding of and to mitigate circumstances that prevent individuals from surviving home fires. Individual circumstances and characteristics of victims often play crucial roles in the outcome. During 2005-2009, one or more human factors contributed to an estimated average of 1,610, or 61%, of the 2,650 fatal home fire injuries. 

This analysis will examine the fire circumstances and characteristics of the victims for five human factors or combination of human factors contributing to fatal injury, including:

• Asleep, a factor in 790, or 30%, of home fire deaths;
• Possibly impaired by alcohol or drugs or other chemical (or both), a factor in 380, or 14%, of the deaths;
• Physically disabled, a factor in 380, or 14% of the home fire deaths;
• Possibly mentally disabled, a factor in 120, or 5%, of the deaths;
• Unattended or unsupervised child under 10 years of age, a factor in 60, or 2%, of the home fire deaths. Unattended or unsupervised was also cited as a factor in deaths of people with disabilities.

This report compares the circumstances and characteristics of these five factors with each other and with all home fire victims. Reports examining fatalities with physical disability and with possible impairment by alcohol or drugs were recently published. These reports contain additional detail and can be found at the research section of our website.

Overall, 56% of the fatal home fire victims were male. When physical disability was a contributing factor, 51% of the victims were male. This was the factor in which the lowest percent of victims were male. The highest percentages of male victims were seen among victims who were possibly impaired by drugs or alcohol (73%), and unattended or unsupervised children under 10 (68%).

Half (52%) of home fire victims were in the general area of origin when fatally injured. When sleep was a factor contributing to fatal injury, only 40% of the victims were in the general area of origin. When physical disability was contributing factor, two-thirds (67%) of the victims were fatally injured in the general area of origin as were two-thirds (66%) of the victims of fires in which a possible mental disability was a factor. 

One-quarter (25%) of all home fire deaths resulted from fires started by smoking materials (i.e., lighted tobacco products but not matches or lighters).  The percentage increased to 43% when physical disability was a factor and 42% for victims who were possibly impaired by alcohol or drugs. Only 4% of the deaths involving unattended or unsupervised children under 10 years of age resulted from fires started by smoking materials.

Upholstered furniture was the leading item first ignited in all home fire deaths (19%) and is ranked in the top 3 for all the human factors studied. When possible impairment by alcohol or drugs was a factor, upholstered furniture was the item first ignited in 26% of the deaths. 

Taken together, mattresses or bedding were first ignited in 14% of home fire deaths. However, 35% of the deaths of an unattended or unsupervised child under 10 and 23% of the deaths in which physical disability contributed to the fatal injury resulted from fires beginning with these items. Mattresses or bedding were more commonly ignited in all of the human factors studied than in overall home fire deaths and ranked either first or second among all factors. 

Flammable and combustible liquids and gases, piping or filters were the item first ignited in 9% of home fire deaths overall, and in 22% of deaths where a possible mental disability contributed to the fatality. Flammable liquids were sometimes used in suicide fatalities. 

Although clothing was first ignited in only 5% of all home deaths, when a possible mental disability was a factor, 10% of the fatal injuries resulted from fires that started with clothing.  Clothing was also the item first ignited in 10% of the deaths in which physical disability was a factor and in 8% in which an unattended or unsupervised child under 10 was involved. 

Thirty-seven percent of home fire victims were fatally injured in fires in which a smoke alarm operated. A wide variation was seen in the presence of operating smoke alarms with different human factors contributing to injury. When an unattended or unsupervised child under 10 was a factor, only 21% of the victims were killed in fires with working smoke alarms. When sleep was a factor, smoke alarms operated in one-third (32%) of the deaths. More than one-half (54%) of the fatal injuries in which physical disability was a factor resulted from fires with working smoke alarms.