Fire Safety and Burns - Injury Statistics and Incidence Rates

Burn injury and incidence rates:

The following statistics are the latest available from the National SAFE KIDS Campaign and the United States Fire Administration (part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency):

Injury and death rates:

• The majority of fire-related deaths (70 percent) are caused by smoke inhalation of the toxic gases produced by fires. Actual flames and burns only account for about 30 percent of fire-related deaths and injuries.
  
  
• The majority of fires that kill or injure children are residential fires.
  
  
• The majority of children ages 4 and under who are hospitalized for burn-related injuries suffer from scald burns (65 percent) or contact burns (20 percent).
  
  
• Fireworks-related injuries sent more than 5,000 children to hospital emergency rooms every year.
  
  
• Fires kill more than 500 children ages 14 and under each year and injure approximately 40,000 other children.
  
  
• About 99,000 children ages 14 and under were treated at hospital emergency rooms for burn-related injuries - 58,000 were thermal burns, 27,000 were scald burns, 9,000 were chemical burns, and 2,600 were electrical burns.
  
  
• Hot tap water scald burns cause more deaths and hospitalizations than any other hot liquid burns.

Causes:

• The leading cause of home fires and related injuries is home-cooking equipment. However, most fire-related deaths are from residential fires ignited by smoking materials such as cigarettes.
  
  
• The leading cause of residential fire-related death and injury among children ages 9 and under is due to carelessness.
  
  
• The most common causes of product-related thermal burn injuries among children ages 14 and under are hair curlers, curling irons, room heaters, ovens and ranges, irons, gasoline, and fireworks.
  
  
• Most scald burns to children, especially small children between the ages of 6 months and 2 years, are caused by hot foods or liquids spilled in the kitchen, or other areas where food is prepared and served.

Where and when:

• Over half of children ages 5 and under who die from home fires are asleep at the time of the fire. Another one-third of these children are too young to react appropriately.
  
  
• Deadly residential fires are most likely to start in a living or sleeping area.
  
  
• Residential fires and related deaths occur more often during cold-weather months, December through February, due to portable or area heating equipment.
  
  
• Most child play home fires begin in a bedroom or living room where children are left unattended. The majority of these fires (80 percent) are started by children playing with matches or lighters.

Who:

• Children in homes without working smoke alarms are at greater risk of fire-related death and injury in the event of a fire.
  
  
• Children ages 5 and under are more than twice as likely to die in a fire than any other age group.
  

Smoke alarm and sprinkler system statistics:

• By 1997, the majority of homes (94 percent) in the United States had at least one smoke alarm. However, only three-quarters of all homes had at least one working smoke alarm.
  
  
• Automatic sprinkler systems reduce the chance of dying in a residential fire by approximately 73 percent.
  
  
• Smoke alarms and sprinkler systems combined can reduce fire-related deaths by 82 percent and injuries by 46 percent.

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