Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Fatal Residential Fires : Prevention and Response

Runefors, Marcus LU orcid (2020)
Abstract
Fatal fires in residential occupancies show a decreasing trend over time, but are still responsible for taking
approximately 90 lives in Sweden each year. Much is known about the victims, but less is known about how these
deaths can be prevented. There is research on the effectiveness of different measures, but generally they are populationaverage
effectiveness and, since different groups are known to be subject to quite different scenarios, this effectiveness
is not necessarily representative of the effectiveness for any specific group. Therefore, group-specific effectiveness is
derived in this thesis. The results indicate that smoke alarms are effective for most groups, but additional measures are
needed for some... (More)
Fatal fires in residential occupancies show a decreasing trend over time, but are still responsible for taking
approximately 90 lives in Sweden each year. Much is known about the victims, but less is known about how these
deaths can be prevented. There is research on the effectiveness of different measures, but generally they are populationaverage
effectiveness and, since different groups are known to be subject to quite different scenarios, this effectiveness
is not necessarily representative of the effectiveness for any specific group. Therefore, group-specific effectiveness is
derived in this thesis. The results indicate that smoke alarms are effective for most groups, but additional measures are
needed for some groups. This is particularly true for older adults, for whom synthetic clothes and detector-activated
sprinklers are highly effective.
Also, responses to potentially fatal fires in residential occupancies are almost missing from the literature and were
therefore analysed in the thesis. The conclusion was that fire services saved 51 lives during the studied year (2017),
which indicates that the number of fatalities in residential occupancies would have increased by 58% in that year
without fire service responses. Response time was found to be important, but also what the crew could perform on
arrival at each scene, because many were developed fires that required breathing apparatus to perform the rescue. In
another study, responses by other actors were also included for older adults (65+), indicating that, in addition to the
fire service, neighbours are very important, but for the oldest individuals home care also played an important role. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
supervisor
opponent
  • Dr. Hakkarainen, Tuula., VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Finland.
organization
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Residential fires, Fatal fires, Fire services, Fire fatalities, Emergency services, Smoke alarms, Sprinkler system, Prevention, Response
publisher
Lund University, Department of Fire Safety Engineering
defense location
Lecture hall V:D, building V, John Ericssons väg 1, Faculty of Engineering LTH, Lund University, Lund.
defense date
2020-01-23 13:15:00
ISSN
1402-3504
1402-3504
ISBN
978-91-7895-397-4
978-91-7895-396-7
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
eb9456cd-7d49-4315-ae57-bc55987c8dfd
date added to LUP
2019-12-13 10:11:28
date last changed
2020-06-22 10:28:45
@phdthesis{eb9456cd-7d49-4315-ae57-bc55987c8dfd,
  abstract     = {{Fatal fires in residential occupancies show a decreasing trend over time, but are still responsible for taking<br/>approximately 90 lives in Sweden each year. Much is known about the victims, but less is known about how these<br/>deaths can be prevented. There is research on the effectiveness of different measures, but generally they are populationaverage<br/>effectiveness and, since different groups are known to be subject to quite different scenarios, this effectiveness<br/>is not necessarily representative of the effectiveness for any specific group. Therefore, group-specific effectiveness is<br/>derived in this thesis. The results indicate that smoke alarms are effective for most groups, but additional measures are<br/>needed for some groups. This is particularly true for older adults, for whom synthetic clothes and detector-activated<br/>sprinklers are highly effective.<br/>Also, responses to potentially fatal fires in residential occupancies are almost missing from the literature and were<br/>therefore analysed in the thesis. The conclusion was that fire services saved 51 lives during the studied year (2017),<br/>which indicates that the number of fatalities in residential occupancies would have increased by 58% in that year<br/>without fire service responses. Response time was found to be important, but also what the crew could perform on<br/>arrival at each scene, because many were developed fires that required breathing apparatus to perform the rescue. In<br/>another study, responses by other actors were also included for older adults (65+), indicating that, in addition to the<br/>fire service, neighbours are very important, but for the oldest individuals home care also played an important role.}},
  author       = {{Runefors, Marcus}},
  isbn         = {{978-91-7895-397-4}},
  issn         = {{1402-3504}},
  keywords     = {{Residential fires; Fatal fires; Fire services; Fire fatalities; Emergency services; Smoke alarms; Sprinkler system; Prevention; Response}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Lund University, Department of Fire Safety Engineering}},
  school       = {{Lund University}},
  title        = {{Fatal Residential Fires : Prevention and Response}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/73105703/Marcus_FatalResidentialFires.pdf}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}