Deaths from clothing and bedding fires

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Deaths from clothing and bedding fires

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NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA

CONSEIL NATIONAL DE RECHERCHES DU CANADA

DEATHS FROM CLOTHING AND BEDDING FIRES

BY

G. Wrrr,rnras-Lsrn

A N A L Y Z f ; D

Reprinted lrom

Canadian Journal of Public Health

Vol. 58, October 1967

p.444-453

Technical Paper No. 261

of the

Division of Building Research

OTTAWA

November

1967

5'z z

MORTS CAUSEES PAR L'INFLAMMATION

DES

vftrrvrpNrs ou DE LA LTTERIE

SOMMAIRE

L'auteur d6taille les circonstances dans lesquelles

fin-flammation des v6tements ou de la literie a caus6 des

morts en Ontario de 1954 d,1963.

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA

CONSEIL NATIONAL DE RECHERCHES DU CANADA

DEATHS FROM CLOTHING AND BEDDING FIRES

BY

G. Wrrlreus-Lrtn

Reprinted lrom

Canadian Journal of Public Health

Vol. 58, October 1967

p.444-453

Technical Paper No. 261 of the

Division of Building Research

OTTAWA

November

1967

NRC 9868

Deaths from Clothing and Bedding

Fires'

G. WILLIAMS-LEIR2

HEN organized fire protection re-search began in Canada, there was a need to define relevant problems, that is, to identify fire losses that could con-ceivably be reduced by applying existing knowledge or searching for new knowledge. Statistics on fire, compiled provincially for many years, are summarized in annual federal reports (l). To reduce fire losses, these statistics must be studied in detail in separate categories such as life and pro-perty losses. A single province, Ontario, was chosen as a sample of the country in the compilation of as thorough a survey as possible. In the initial stages the staff of the Division of Building Research or that of the Ontario Fire Marshal visited many sites of fatal fires; the greater Part of the survey, however, depended upon information gathered by a detailed ques-tionnaire that was sent to fire chiefs, police officers and others, who co-operated generously.

The survev, conducted from 1954 to 1963 inclusivl, found that fatal fires break

and bed fires, both of which start with the ignition of a fabric but otherwise are quite different. Most of the quantitative state-ments relate to the eight years between

1956 ard L963.

Flrer CrornING FnEs Source ol lgnition

How clothing becomes ignited is re-vealed in Table I, which shows that certain

rThis reoort is a contribution from the Division of Buil irc Researcb, National Rsearch Cogncil -of -;;;da; and is piblished wittr the approval of tbe Director of the Division.

2Research OEcer, Fire Research Sectio4' Qivision of Building Research, National Reserch Comcil' Ottawa. Ontario.

age groups are especially subject to certain kinds of fire. To investigate the circum-stances, several of these grouPs have been examined in more detail in Table II.

The largest group is associated with cooking appliances. Of 102 people fatally injured, 58 were women over age fifty. Most of these were carrying out duties which may have been part of their daily routine for many years. Their deaths were due in part to loss of alertness or-reaction speed with age, or to the decreasing ca-pacity to survive a burn (see section below entitled "Duration of Survival after Burns"). Men over fifty and children also ignite their clothing at cookers, but their injuries are more often due to inattention than to the hazards of daily routine.

Second, 51 deaths were caused by mis-handling flammable liquids; 30 of the victims were adult men;21 of the 5l used the liquids to start or to rekindle fires in stoves or fireplaces.

The third group, industrial accidents, comprises adult men, except for one woman factory worker, A variety of causes is listed in Table IL

Smoking is the fourth most important cause of fatal clothing fires; its victims are mostly elderly men. The figures given exclude deaths from smoking in bed-the predominant cause of bed fires-which is discussed separately. Thd eight victims, re-ported in line 3 of Table I, fell asleep while smoking on chesterfields, etc., but their clothing ignited first; otherwise the cases would have been treated as bedding fues.

The fifth cause of clothing fires is playing with matches, to which children of both sexes are equally subject.

These five groups comprise 83Vo of the known sources of fatal igrrition of clothing. Drinking does not apPear to be a serious factor in clothing fires although it may

have influenced,4Vo of the cases.

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-446 CANADIAN IOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

TABLE ll-CronrrNc Frnns: Tnr Mosr FnrqwNT SouRcEs oF IcNrrroN

Vol. 58

Age 50 Age G-9 Age 10-49 and over

Code M M F Total

Faulty use or maintenance of

cooking appliance, electric or other: ll,14 Working at cooker, reaching over

it, etc. a

Fat ignited in frying pans b

Lightingfuelcookers c

Refuelling cooker; ash removal d, e

Usingapronstoholdpots f

Fuelgasexplosions h

Tooclose to cooker; inattention E

Miscellaneous j 4 I 4 4 4 1 I 4 2 2 3 3 1 9 l t 5 7 3 6 1 0 9 9 2 7 7 6 2 2 l 3 Subtotal t 7 58 l02

Misuse of flammable liquids Throwing on fres, stoves Working on vehicles Use as cleaning agpnt Lamps and stoves (portable) Misccllaneous Subtotal 8 1 9 2 2 1 4 l t 7 3 1 2 2 8 3 2 5 1 3 1 1 1 1 0 5 a b c d e 5 l l 5 2l Industrial accidents

Ipition by open flames, welders' sparks, etc.

Flammable liquids

Flammable gas, vapour leaks Clothing

Vcsscl penctrated by cutting/weldiog torch/arc

FLammable f, uid otherwise ignited (static) Acci&nts arising in Foundries Furnaces Electrical installations Othcr installations Subtotal IA b c d e f

s

h j k 6 3 3 2 t 0 2 2 I 2 6 3 2 2 l l 8 5 J 3 l 2 6 -t 2 4 3 7 Smoking

Playing with matches Open flanrcs Fwl heatcrs

Bonfues, rubbish disposal Other known causes Unknown Subtotal

)

I I 2 I 2 I 3 I 3 , 4 2 1 0 6 l 1 5 I 7 3 2 2 2 8 3 7 t 2 2 3 6 1 3 4 2 8 2 4 1 0 5 1 0 2 2 1 6 9 t2l 36 38 1 0 il t 7 Total 3 l l 6 74 22 78 99 320

October 1967

Children and Clothing Fires

FIRE DEATHS

For the 45 children under ase seven who died in clothing fires, this suivey tries to ascertain why the parent or other persoD responsible could not have protected or saved the child. In 14 cases the responsible person was not there, and in 17 others, though he was in the same building as the fire, he was not in time. A variety of reasons is given in the other 14 cases. Characteristics ol the Ignited Clothing

The type of fabric which became ignited on the victim is not always known; how-ever, in 73Vo of the known cases it was cotton (Table III). The questionnaire asked that specimens of the actual gar-ments be sent for inspection, but these revealed few, if any, differences from the normal wear of the Ontario population. Men are seldom fatally burned by synthetic fibres, or women by wool, but ihese find. ings are probably no more than reflections of prevailing styles of clothing.

147 Table IV shows that although relatively few clothing fires occur during the night, one in every four victims was in night attire. These victims included elderly people in nursing homes and women pre-paring breakfast.

Chronology

The trend of fatal clothins fires is shown in Figure I, which iidicates a decrease. Figure 2 shows that fatal clothing fires due to accidents with cooking stoves are most frequent in winter and-spring. Flammable liquid accidents occur the year round. Industrial accidents are at a peak in August and September for no apparent reason; the figures are distorted by three accidents from which nine people died; clothing fires rarely cause more than one death per accident. When these three groups-cookers, flammable liquids and industrial accidents-are removed from the total causes of clothing fires, the mis-cellaneous category remaining follows a TABLE III-GenrvrsNTs lNp FasR.rcs IcNnno Frnsr lN F.lr.qr CrorHrNc Frnrs 1956_63

Cotton Wool SyntheticFibre Unknown Total Male victims: Shirt Trousers Jacket or sweater Overalls Pyjamas Dressing gown Other Unknown Subtotal 23 8 2 8 8 5 8 I 7

)

J I 3 2 2 40 l 8 9 8 l 4 l 0 1 7 67

1

)

I 9 8 2 t 2 7 64 1 8 3 20 63 Female victims: Blouse Skirt or slacks Jacket or sweater Dress, apron, smock Pyjamas, nightgown Dressing gown Other Unknown Subtotal 2 3 37 6 3 I 5 l l 6 7 3 7 J I 8 2 2 2 l 2 2 5 7 l 4 t 2 I J T l 6 52 137 Total il5 20* 162

*The cases ascribed to "synthetics" were as follows: rayon 6 nylon l0 orlon I 'plastic' ₂ 'synthetic' _I 20

448 CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

TABLE IV-CrorurNc lrqo Bro Frnps

I'oI. 58

Clothing Fires Bedding Fires

Day Night

Clothing Clothing Unspecified Not D

M F M F M F T o t a l M F M F T o t a l Hour 5 l o t 2 l l 4 9 6 8 5 I I 2 5 J 3 4 4 6 4 5 ) l 8 9 3 2 5 2 t 2 2 1 7 2 3 1 5 2 1 3 -3 1 -3 2 2 1 3 4 2 2 l t 3 -I 1 -1 -1 2 1 2 2 1 4 l l l -2 l l 3 -1 - 2 -1 4 2 3 - l 2 - 2 r 3 2 -7 4 4 3 5 l 1 2 5 2 3 3 9 7 8 1 6 l l t 7 23 23 l 5 1 9 l l l 5 t 2 l 2 l l I 5 6 f, 9 65 2 3 -l - -l l 2 -t -t l 2 - 1 6 l - 2 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 3 -3 -3 2 5 2 1 3 2 2 ' - I 3 4 4 1 - 5 3 5 1 0 7 r 8 8 2 - 4 r 3 2 2 1 7 3 7 1 1 7 -4 3 2 - l l 3 4 1 - 3 4 4 3 2 2 1 4 2 1 - 3 2 4 1 1 5 3 2 1 2 -2 - 1 -2 3 - l - l l 4 l r 2 t l 4 -9 1 5 2 7 1 5 1 7 I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 l l Noon l 3 l 4 l 5 l 6 t 7 l 8 l 9 20 2l 22 23 Midnieht Unknown Total 7s 73 24 26 E4 38 53 20 53 2l 147 1 0 0

8 0

-F 6 0 o U d 4 0 r t 9 5 4 5 5 5 6 5 7 5 8 5 9 6 0 6 l

Frcunr l. Trend in bedding and clothing fires.

62 1 9 6 3

October 1967 FIRE DEATHS

FrcrnB 2. Bedding fires; clothing fires by source of ignition; both by time of year.

M i d -n i g h t

trend similar to that for cooker fires-high in winter and spring.

Table IV and Figure 3 show that during the working day both sexes fall victim in comparable numbers (92 men to 70 women), but that in the evenings more men are involved than women (40 to 13). The highest common factor of the 40 cases was Ihat 22 of them involved flam-mable liquids.

Reaction ol Victims

It is difficult to rationalize or classify an individual's actions after he finds his clothing alight. Table V shows what can be said about this. There may be numerous clothing fires in which the victim's reaction saves him from fatal injury, but only cases where it was of no avail are known. For this reason, the table cannot suggest advice on what one should do. Common sense and a study of individual cases suggest that it is better to do nothing than to run (the

419

common panic reaction), but better still to remove the burning garment, jump into water or roll on the ground.

Nature of the Fatal Injuries

The majority of clothing fire deaths were attributed to burns. flowever, six deaths were attributed to asphyxia, and five to other types of injury, some of which were mechanical injuries caused by explosions. No deaths were attributed to carbon mon-oxide poisoning.

Duration of Survival Alter Burns Only a small proportion (16%o ) of the victims died on the day of the fire. The length of survival is a good indication of the severity of each injury and of how close the victim came to recovery. The relation between this survival period and the various circumstances of each case was explored by means of a multiple reqression analysis described in more detail elsewhere

d 0

-d 3 0 - 2 0 ^ 3 0 I

=

* t o 2 4 6 8 1 0 N 0 0 n 2 4 6 8

FIcURE 3. Clothing and bedding fires, by time of day.

A s l e e p w h i l e s m o k i n g n d u s t r i 0 t h e r s o u r c e s i c l o t h i n g f i r e s C o o k i n g a p p l i a n c e s F l a m m a b l e l i q u i d s J A N F E B M A R A P R M A Y J U N E J U L Y A U G S E P T O C T N O V O E C B e d d i n q f i r e s C l o t h i n g f i r e s

450 CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

TABLE V-AcrroN TarrN sy VrcrrM oF CrornIl.rc Frnr

Presence of others

Unknown Total

Tried to beat or smother fire

Tried to use water or other extinguishant

Tried to remove clothing Unable to take eflective

action because infant, senile or invalid No effective action

(influence of liquor or drugs)

No effective action (panic) No need to act: others

took action immediatelv Other reactions

Unknown Total

TABLE Vl-Exprcrro Sunvrvnr or BunN Vrcrrpls

(Ontario, 1954-63) Area Burned (%, of Body Surface)

Sex 20

Survival Period in Days l t 22 9 . 5 1 9 6 . 9 1 4 4 . 3 8 . 5 Vol. 58 Yes 1 4 1 5 3 4 5 2 34 7 1 0 34 5 4 3 6 88 28 79 I 5 49 15 I l l 5 l 4 t 6 J 24 88 1 8 l 6 66 67 1 8 7 60 Age 2 . 7 1 . 6 3 . 9 1 . 9 1 6 52 1 4 47 1 1 37 M F M F M F M F I J 30 50 70 6 . 8 3 . 3 1 0 3 . 9 5 . 8 2 . 9 8 . 5 3 . 4 4 . 3 2 . 3 6 ) ' . ' 1 8 . 2 27 (2). Duration of survival was shown to depend strongly on the sex and age of the victim and on the extent of the burn; 199 of the reports included an estimate of the proportion of body area burned. Survival depended less on other circumstances such as the year of the accident; other things being equal, it was roughly constant during the first half of the period 1954 to 1963, and increased appreciably in the second half.

Table VI shows the expected survival of victims of both sexes and various ages who suffer burns of various extents. Tie data varied considerably; it may be estimated that one in three expectations based on

these results will be out by a factor of three or more. Cases where survival was outside this tolerance were individuallv checked against the original data. Thosi victims whose survival was shorter than expected often suffered from complica-tions, in addition to the burns, such as coronary thrombosis, "obstruction in throat", or "acute alcoholic intoxication,'. Occupancy

Two of three fatal clothing fires occur in homes (Table VII). The- third most often results from industrial activities; or is outdoors or in an institution for the

October 1967 FIRE DEATHS TABLE VII-OccuPlNcY Clothing Fire AsleeP Deaths Smoking 451 Industrial

Institution, home for agpd, hospital Stationary vehicle

Outdoors

Other non-residential Subtotal

Unshared separate dYelling ADartrnent

Rboming house, hotel, motel Cottage or shack

Dwelling of other or unspecified type Subtotal Total 45 l 7 7 25 t 8 2 3 2 5 ll2 l l l t 6 6 1 3 62 t 2 62 2 l 2 l 7 24 1 3 5 208 147 320

TABLE VIII-BepprNc Frns VrcrrMs: AcB lNp Srx Not D Agp Total D M

o - 9

1G-19 20-29 30-39 4049 50-59 ffi-49 7{d--79 80 and over l l 4 l 3 29 l 9 33 22 7 9 4 -l -l 5 3 9 2 4 4 1 2 7 9 2 3 l 6 l 6 l l l 4 l 1 5 3 6 5 8 6 9 2 2 l 2 -147 21 53 20 53 BsP FIRss

This class of fire was not included when the classification scheme was first designed; subsequent experience, however, has shown it to be distinct from other classes of fatal fire. Among the sources of ignition of building fires, it is roughly coextensive with the category "Smoker fell asleep"; this includes about one case in three where the smoker ignited a chesterfield or the like rather than a bed. Fatal bed fires exclude cases where the first material ignited was a smoker's clothing; these were dealt with earlier.

In eight years 135 seParate fues due to sleeping smokers have caused"l47 deaths

(the smoker usually, but not invariably, becoming a victim). Men outnumber

women among the victims in the ratio 2.6 to I (Table VI[).

Bed Fires and Drinking

Drinking is an important factor and is mentioned in many of the reports. In the tables, the key "D" means that there is reason to suspect that the individual re-sponsible for the fire was at the time under the influence of drink, sedatives or other drugs; "NOT D" means there is no evi-dence of this. This account is concerned with death due to fire and naturally empha-sizes smoking as a cause; but in many cases the fault lay with the victim's drink-ing habits.

Table VIII shows that though fewer women than men die from smokins in

.t_5 2 _{CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH Vol. 58} bed. the proportion of "D" cases among

those who do is about the same as foi men. The victims under age 19 mentioned in this table were not neclssarily smokers or drinkers since, as mentioned above. fires of this kind occasionally kill persons other than the one who caused the fire.

lncluded in the "D" category were 19 victimS of fires caused by persons who had taken barbiturates or other sedatives before smoking in bed. In 12 cases they had specific diseases, other than alcoholism, and at Ieast two were under medical care. Reasons Why Victims Did Not Escape

The classification scheme asks why the victim was not able to escape the fire, and in 74% of the cases in this category the explanation is: "Asleep, and did not wake In tlme to attempt escape." From this we

stances.

More detail is available concernins victims under age seven, since for thesE the reason why the person presumed to be responsible for the child's *elfare was not able to protect him from the fire was investigated. There were nine such child victims; none of them had been left alone, but in five cases the responsible person was "D" and in the other four, though he was in the same building at the time of the fire, he was too late to save the child.

reserve, because burns are often cited where fatal injury has probabty been pre-viously caused by anoxia or poisoning with combustion products.

More care may be taken with death certificates when an inquest has been or will be held. Table IX shows that, among the relatively few victims who become thE subject of an inquest, the proporrion at-tributed to burns is much lower than

other-It also appears (at the 5Vo level) that

lnquest. Chronology

Figure I shows no conspicuous annual trend. Likewise no marked seasonal effect appears in Figure 2, other than the peak around Christmas. More people died from this class of fire between 2l and 3l De-cember than in an average month.

Fatal fires caused by faTling asleep while

TABLE lX-Nanrnp _{oF INruRy rN FATAL BroorNc Frnrs}

Not D

lnquest No Inq Inquest No Inq. Total

Asphyxia Burns Carbon monoxide 29 27 6 2 2 1 7 3 5 l 0 5 4 57 67 23 147 62 t 2 l 0

Nature ol Fatal Injuries

Table IX indicates the nature of the

injury considered responsible for each

death and its relation to whether an inquest

was held and to whether the factor -..D"

was involved. The reported "nature of fatal

injury" _{should be accepted with some}

smoking after drinking are most frequent between midnight and 2 a.m. (Table IV, Figure 3). The peak for males not in the "D" category is from 3 to 6 a.m. These vlctrms were mostly elderly, and several died through igniting chesterfields rather than beds. Some had stayed up late; for

October 1967

about half of them, however, it maY be

surmised that, unable to sleep, 'they sat

down with a cigarette, and dozed, with fatal consequences. Insomnia, therefore,

though not specifically mentioned in any of

the reports, may be a factor in these deaths.

Occupancy

The occupancies in which fatal fires occurred (Table VII) were mainly resi-dential, but 2l died in rooming houses, hotels and motels. Nine of these were in hotels, probably licensed. Only one was in a hospital, and one in a nursing home. Extent ol Fires

The fatal fires that develop from

ciga-rettes on mattresses and chairs are generally

limited in extent; in 66Vo of the cases, damage did not extend beyond the room where the fire started. A few victims thought they had extinguished fires in

chesterfields, etc., and were overcome when

the smouldering fire rekindled. Commentary

Eight victims had a previous history of

causing fires, and some had been evicted from rooming houses either on these grounds or because of their drinking habits. Seven victims were paralyzed, bed-ridden or had had legs amPutated.

CoNcI-ustoN

This survey was designed to identify categories of fire deaths amenable to reduc-tion by rareduc-tional methods. In most cases there was more than one link at which the chain of circumstances leading to each fire death could have been interruPted; the most familiar examples of how this could be done are by eliminatipg sources of ignition, combustible materials, or the acts

o-f carelessness that bring these together.

The evidence presented in this report points to certain links as worthy of attack. bonspicuous among these are: the readi-ness with which clothing made from

com-fires. FIRE DEATHS

REFERENCES

453

1. Dominion Fire Commissioner: "Fire

Lo,sses in Canada." Queen's Printer, Ottawa

(Annual).

2. Williams-Leir, G.: "Multiple Regression

Analvsis of Fire Deaths from Burns." National Research Council of Canada, Division of Building Research, Building Research Note 58, March 1967.