Alcohol plays a significant role in residential fire deaths and other fatal injuries, impairing up to 40% of people killed in home fires and more than half of emergency room victims treated for trauma, according to a new report from the U.S. Fire Administration's National Fire Data Center. Burn victims who had been drinking are three times more likely to die than sober burn victims, the study also reports.

According to “Establishing a Relationship Between Alcohol and Casualties of Fire,” released Feb. 10 by FEMA as part of its Topical Fire Research Series, there's a “significant link” between alcohol and residential fire deaths, as well as between alcohol and deaths from car accidents, falls, drowning, homicide and suicide.

“We hope this report helps educate fire officials and the public about this problem, so that campaigns that have been so successful in warning about drinking and driving can bring similar attention to drinking and fires,” said Michael D. Brown, undersecretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response.

The report finds alcohol abuse is a leading risk factor for unintentional injuries, the fifth leading cause of death in the United States: “The overall costs resulting from unintentional injuries and deaths totaled $517 billion in 2001. Nearly 7% of the adult population meet the diagnostic criteria for alcohol abuse.”

Children suffer more deaths and injuries in alcohol-impaired fires and other accidents, although not imbibing themselves, because of failing care by alcohol-impaired adults, the report finds.

“This report also makes an important note that smoking combined with alcohol abuse exacerbates the risk of fires, fire injuries and fire deaths,” said U.S. Fire Administrator R. David Paulison. “Smoking and drinking is a particularly dangerous combination since smoking materials offer a ready-made fire threat and alcohol consumption decreases one's chances of detecting and escaping a fire.”

The USFA also released two related studies exploring the connection between alcohol abuse and fire deaths. One Minnesota fire data study reported that 36% of the state's fire fatalities from 1996 to 2002 had alcohol levels of 0.1 or higher. The second study looked at data collected by the Ontario, Canada, fire marshal and found that 19% of fire fatalities from 1995 to 2001 were alcohol-impaired.

The full report can be dowloaded from the FEMA Web site at www.usfa.fema.gov/insideusfa/nfdc/pubs/tfrs.shtm.

40%
Estimated percentage of all residential fire deaths that involved alcohol

Alcoholics in Toronto have a greater fire death risk than that of the city's population
9.7x

36%
Percentage of Minnesota fatalites who had positive blood alcohol concentrations

Percentage of Minnesota smoking-related fire deaths that also involved alcohol
62%

53%
Percentage of adult fire death victims in North Carolina found to be intoxicated

Burn victims who had been drinking are more likely to die than those who had not
3x