Factors contributing to survival and evacuation in residential fires involving older adults in Sweden

Runefors, MarcusLund University,Lunds universitet,Avdelningen för Brandteknik,Institutionen för bygg- och miljöteknologi,Institutioner vid LTH,Lunds Tekniska Högskola,Division of Fire Safety Engineering,Department of Building and Environmental Technology,Departments at LTH,Faculty of Engineering, LTH,Lund university (författare)

It has been known for a long time that older adults suffer a significantly higher risk of dying in residential fires compared to younger people. The characteristics of these fatal fires and the fatalities are also well known. However, less is known about older adults who survive fires and how they differ from those who die. This distinction can be assumed to be of great importance when designing effective prevention efforts. In the current paper, factors that contribute to survival of older adults (65+) has been investigated together with factors that contribute to different modes of evacuation (e.g. evacuation assisted by neighbours) based, primarily, on incident reports. The results show that fewer than half of the victims (39%) evacuated independently and many rely on evacuation assisted by neighbours (18%), first-responders (27%) or homecare personnel (8%). Living in urban areas was found to increase the odds of survival. Based on the results from the analysis of evacuation, this is likely due to a combination of proximity to neighbours and a short response time. For successful evacuation by non-firefighters, the fires often had to be confined to the object of ignition while the rescue service could evacuate from larger fires.

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP Hälsovetenskap Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi hsv//swe
MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES Health Sciences Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology hsv//eng
TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER Samhällsbyggnadsteknik Annan samhällsbyggnadsteknik hsv//swe
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Civil Engineering Other Civil Engineering hsv//eng
Evacuation
Fire fatality
Non-fatal fire injury
Rescue services
Residential fires
Fires
Housing
'current
Fire fatalities
First responders
Homecare
Incident reports
Older adults
Young peoples
Emergency services
Public Health Science
Folkhälsovetenskap
Evacuation
Fire fatality
Non-fatal fire injury
Rescue services
Residential fires
risk-factors
injuries
fatality
deaths
Engineering
Materials Science

Jonsson, Anders,1967-Karlstad University,Karlstads universitet,Centrum för klimat och säkerhet (from 2013-2020)(Swepub:kau)andejons (författare)
Bonander, CarlGothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,University of Gothenburg,Institutionen för medicin, avdelningen för samhällsmedicin och folkhälsa,Institute of Medicine, School of Public Health and Community Medicine,Göteborg university(Swepub:gu)xbonac (författare)
Avdelningen för BrandteknikInstitutionen för bygg- och miljöteknologi (creator_code:org_t)

Av författaren/redakt...: Runefors, Marcus; Jonsson, Anders, ...; Bonander, Carl

Om ämnet

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP: MEDICIN OCH HÄLS ...; och Hälsovetenskap; och Folkhälsovetensk ...

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER: TEKNIK OCH TEKNO ...; och Samhällsbyggnads ...; och Annan samhällsby ...

Av lärosätet: Karlstads universitet; Lunds universitet; Göteborgs universitet

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