All Structure Fires in 2000

All Structure Fires in 2000

            Structure fires in the year 2000 resulted to wanton destruction of property and human life in the U.S. The analysis showed that the main cause was kitchen. Structure fires are said to be more than twice as destructive as other kind of fires.  From the information provided by the National Fire Incident Reporting System, NFRIS, these fires accounted for over 30% of fires of all types. They are said to have caused more than 76% on the loss of property. Another alarming figure was the number of deaths that resulted to an average of 72%. To make matters worse, these fires led to about 82% of injuries resulting from all fires that were reported (U.S. Fire Administration, 2004).

The report is no doubt very essential for all American residents as it cautions them to be more pertaining to structure fires. The review of these fires can be analyzed in terms of the losses that were reported, the major areas where they were reported, the main agents of these fires and times when the fires were said to have had the highest occurrence rates.  Structure fires are said to have led to so much of destruction. According to the report, these fires are highly severe. In fact, they have more than twice the magnitude in dollar loss, for deaths and injuries, compared to other fires.

The loss measures for structure fires showed that of all the fires reported, they accounted for more than $16219 loss for every fire of this nature reported. The report also showed than the ratio of deaths per every 1000 structure fires that were reported was about 5.7. This means that more than 570 people died for every 1000 structure fires that were reported. Compared to outside fires, structure fires had more than 470 deaths in 1000 fires reported. The no was even worse where the number of disabilities was 39900 for every 1000 fires reported. For fires outside, 2000 injuries were reported (U.S. Fire Administration, 2004). Looking at these figures, it is evident that structure fires have the worst of all bad effects compared to any kind of fires.

The major areas where the fires occurred were reported to be in residential areas. With the highest number of these fires being reported in family homes as opposed to apartments leaves so much fear to especially parents, who in most cases leave their kids at home. It was also reported that these fires mainly occurred in stores in most of non-residential structures. However, these fires were reported on lower scale in assembly structures and in businesses.

Structure fires were also analyzed depending on the major areas of origin. These fires were said to have mainly emanated from cooking areas. It is true because kitchens have fires which are meant for cooking. These fires were also said to have originated from bedrooms. For all structure fires that were reported, 25.6% of them are said to have emanated from kitchens and cooking areas. Fires that originated from bedrooms accounted for about 10.4% while those from vehicle storage areas and wall surface exterior accounted for 4.8% and 4.6% respectively (U.S. Fire Administration, 2004).

As the major origin of these fires was said to be kitchens, the obvious cause was cooking and other heating appliances. There ware suspicious fires witnessed in most of these fires also. About 20% of the fires witnessed are said to have been caused by suspicious incidents which are thought that human effort was required for them to start. It is also reported that some sources of heat accounted for about 31% of all the fires. Some of these sources of heat are cigarettes, sparks from equipment, or even electrical arcing.

The most shocking of all news is the fact that most of these fires mostly occurred in the evening between 5pm and 6pm. They are also said to mainly occur during winter than during summer. The reasons here is the fact that most of the people cook around evening and also that during winter, people use appliances such as heaters to warm their hoses. Finally the report shows that no emphasize had been put on fire alarms which were either unavailable or were faulty at the time of these fires.

References

U.S. Fire Administration / National Fire Data Center, (2004, June), All Structure Fires in 2000, Topical Fire Research Series, 3(18) Retrieved June 25, 2009 from http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/tfrs/v3i8.pdf