Tradeoffs between residential and industrial fire protection for ultimate public safety

Abstract

In 1975, fire losses in the United States totaled about 0.25% of the GNP, or 4.4 billion dollars. Statistics on distribution of fire types show that 30% involve residential dwellings; 10% industrial, institutional, and educational buildings; 21% are due to transportation-related factors; and the remaining 38% include forest, grassland, and rubbish fires. These statistics show that industrial and public facilities account for almost 50% of the financial loss statistics, while residential and transportation losses amount to 36 and 11% of the total, respectively. More than 60% of fire fatalities are attributed to building fires, and of these, almost 90% occur in private residences.

This brief survey reveals that a relatively small number of fires are responsible for the major dollar losses, and the major loss of life in fires results from residential fires, where the number of fatalities per fire are relatively small.

Can technology be applied to reduce either the financial disaster incurred during industrial fires, or the life loss in residential fires? The evidence indicates that residential fire mortality will not be significantly reduced by technical solutions. However, there is also the potential for large life loss in industrial fires, and these could be reduced significantly by technical solutions. Therefore, increased efforts to secure the optimum amount of industrial fire protection could certainly reduce our financial losses, and possibly protect more lives.