Residential fire incidents and their associated impacts in New South Wales, Australia

Abstract

Globally fires are devastating events and cause an estimated 265,000 deaths each year. In most industrialised countries, including Australia, a high proportion of fire-related deaths and injuries are related to residential fires. The objectives of this study are to quantify the health impacts of residential fires in NSW, Australia's most populous state, and to determine the associated risk factors considering the total number of residential fires including reported to the fire brigade records and unreported fire incidents that resulted in use of health service utilisation and deaths. Specially, the aims of this study are to: i) estimate the total number of residential fires and determine the extent there is underreporting of incidents, and related injuries and deaths across the datasets; ii) determine risk factors associated with residential fire incidents and adverse outcomes and to quantify the total hospitalisation cost of residential fires; iii) determine risk factors and protective factors associated with residential fires based on type and ownership of properties; and iv) determine the impact of fire safety-related policy of reduced fire risk (RFR) cigarettes on number and severity of fire incidents and their health impact. This thesis utilised nine administrative data sources of fire brigade residential fires incident linked with health services of ambulance, emergency department, hospital admissions, burns outpatient clinics and mortality. The data was at NSW population level for 10-year period beginning in 2004. These were used to identify residential fires incidents and individuals' impacted and their health trajectory, hospitalisation costs, and death. Four published papers and one article currently under review that addressed the research objectives have formed the core of this thesis. This thesis has provided detailed evidence that the total residential fire incidents in NSW was over 6 times more than the official records. Further, it evaluated targeted prevention strategies and fire safety measures and determined that they were most effective. Finally, it concluded that for most vulnerable groups, combination of engineering solutions with enforcement and education continues to be needed. The findings of this research may help with service planning, developing effective policies and deploying prevention and intervention strategies and measures to sub-populations at risk. In addition, it may also be used to improve emergency response and enhance community resilience.

Date of Award	2022
Original language	English