Fire, fatal

Anderson RA, Harland WA. 1980. The analysis of volatiles in blood from fire fatalities. In Proceedings of the Forensic Toxicology European Meeting, Int Assoc Toxicol, 279-292. 

Answer questions 34 and 35 by referring to the following table, which shows fire fatalities statewide for certain ages. 

The key items regulated are components in vehicles and items covered under the FFA. NFPA has developed statistics that show average annual U.S. vehicular losses (1980-1998) 433,000 fires, with 679 civilian fire fatalities, 2990 civilian fire injuries, and 959.0 millions in total fire losses.29 In structures, the numbers, from 1980 to 1998, are 682,200 fires, with 4440 civilian fire fatalities, 23,014 civilian fire injuries, and 6438.3 millions in total fire losses.30 In fact, the data show that the number of vehicular fires is almost two-thirds of the number of structure fires. The heat release rate obtained from a burning automobile has been shown to be in the range of 1.5-8.0MW, roughly the same order as heat released from a fully involved room in a home.31... 

A comprehensive study of fire (and nonfire) fatalities associated with carbon monoxide showed that carbon monoxide inhalation statistically tracks fire fatalities.199 200 203... 

This paper recognizes the presence of a fire-risk in many products, as well as components. Fire risk was described by statistics for products that contain urethane foams. Those products can be related to fire fatalities, ignition source, or occupancy factors. The federal data collected about frequency and consequences of our nation s fire losses cannot tell us which, or how many, of these products did contain urethane foam. Our available data in that area cannot give a persuasive description of the situation. 

Year Total vehicle fires Total car fires Fatal casualties Non-fatal casualties... 

Harland, W. A. and Woolley, W. D. Fire fatality study — University of Glasgow. Building Research Establishment Information Paper, IP 18/79 (1979)... 

Materials in car interiors need to meet a horizontal flame spread rate of no more than 4 in/min (102 mm/min), when tested according to US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 302 (FMVSS 302), however, the results of this test have been shown not to predict fire hazard. Fire fatalities in highway vehicles, although occurring in much smaller numbers than in buildings, do represent significant numbers. In 1997, there were 88 such cases in the UK and 450 in the USA. 

Most commercial plastics are readily combustible, and some evolve dark smoke on binning. This smoke is indirectly responsible for most fire fatalities. The cost of fire damage to buildings and contents has been estimated at up to 30 billion euros/year in Europe. 

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