Alcohol and smoking leads to most fire deaths in Ireland - and more than half are older men living alone.
The first ever research paper by the Health Research Board (HRB) on fire deaths showed that alcohol was a factor in 51% of the 106 fire-related fatalities in closed inquest cases between 2014-2016.
And sadly, it showed that men over 65 who lived in rural locations were the most common victims, with one in three confirmed to also be a smoker.
After alcohol, the most common drugs present were antidepressants, followed by benzodiazepines, non-opioid analgesics and hypnotics.
Darrin Morrissey, Chief Executive at the HRB, said: “This new HRB research is designed to support the development of evidence-based policies to reduce the number of fire-related deaths in Ireland and increase awareness among those most at risk, especially older people and/or those living alone, and in rural locations.”
Of the total, 69 were male while 37 were female and 80 were reported to be single.
Potential contributory factors were present for 48 fires, these include smoking materials (including cigarettes) and electrical devices that were either plugged in or faulty.
Other possible causes were self-harm, open fires and frying pans/chip pans and a small number of fires were reported to be linked to the presence of burning candles.
Seán Hogan, National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management at the Department of Housing said: “Since the initiation of our community fire safety programmes, we have seen a significant and steady decline in the number of fire fatalities recorded in Ireland over the last 15 years – this decrease in large part can be attributed to the increase in fire safety awareness and the ownership of domestic smoke alarms.
“This welcome downward trend sees the number of fire fatalities in Ireland below a range of 6 per million of population which puts Ireland in the league of countries that have minimised fire deaths.
“However, our work is ongoing, so we have been fortunate to leverage the expertise of HRB researchers, who already extract information from coronial files, to gain insight into the circumstances of Irish fire fatalities.
“We hope to continue working with the Health Research Board in order to use this learning to progress community fire safety, awareness and education initiatives with the aim of continuing to reduce the number of people who die as a result of fires in Ireland every year.”
