Economic costs of residential fires : a systematic review

Fahmida Saadia Rahman, Wadad Kathy Tannous, Gulay Avsar, Kingsley Emwinyore Agho, Nargess Ghassempour, Lara A. Harvey

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Globally, most fire-related deaths and injuries occur in residential areas. The aim of this systematic review is to report on the economic costs of residential fires from a societal perspective. Five databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, EconLit, CINAHL, and Scopus) and grey literature were searched to identify studies that report economic or societal costs of residential fires with data from 1978 to 2021. There were no restrictions on study design. A narrative synthesis was undertaken based on the societal and economic costs reported for each included study. Seven studies from the United States, Canada, Australia, and Kuwait reported costs of residential fires. The costs of injuries and deaths were between USD 12 million and USD 5 billion, and between USD 75 million and USD 26 billion, respectively. The costs of treatment ranged from USD 0.3 million to USD 551 million, lost productivity from USD 12 million to USD 4 billion, and property damage from USD 8 million to USD 10 billion. This systematic review provides the most comprehensive evidence to date on the economic costs of residential fires. This study would offer insights into the effects of residential fires on diverse economic agents and aid in community fire prevention messaging and incentives.
Original languageEnglish
Article number399
Number of pages23
JournalFire
Volume6
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2023

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© 2023 by the authors.

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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