title: Comparison of the characteristics of fire and non-fire households in the 2004-2005 survey of fire department-attended and unattended fires.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Comparison of characteristics of fire with non-fire households to determine factors differentially associated with fire households (fire risk factors).
  
  
  METHODS
  National household telephone survey in 2004-2005 by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission with 916 fire households and a comparison sample of 2161 non-fire households. There were an estimated 7.4 million fires (96.6% not reported to fire departments) with 130,000 injuries.
  
  
  METHODS
  Bivariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression analyses to assess differences in household characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significant factors associated with fire households were renting vs. owning (OR 1.988 p<0.0001); household members under 18 year of age (OR 1.277 p<0.0001); lack of residents over 64 years old (OR 0.552 p=0.0007); and college or higher education (some college OR 1.444 p=0.0360, college graduate OR 1.873, p<0.0001, postgraduate OR 2.156 p<0.0001). Not significant were age of house; race; ethnicity; and income. Number of smokers was borderline significant (OR 1.132 p=0.1019) but was significant in the subset of fire households with non-cooking fires (OR 1.383 p=0.0011). Single family houses were associated with non-fire households in the bivariate analysis but not in the multivariate analyses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Renting, household members under 18 years old and smokers are risk factors for unattended fires, similar to the literature for fatal and injury fires. Differences included household members over 65 years old (associated with non-fire households), college/postgraduate education (associated with fire households) and lack of significance of income. Preventing cooking fires (64% of survey incidents), smoking prevention efforts and fire prevention education for families with young children have the potential for reducing unattended fires and injuries.
authors: michael.greene@comcast.net
authors: Michael A
authors: MA
authors: Greene
mesh_terms: D000061:Accidents, Home / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017677:Age Distribution; D000367:Age Factors; D004522:Educational Status; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005390:Fires / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006798:Housing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007860:Leasing, Property / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016015:Logistic Models; D010067:Ownership / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States