A total of 235 people lost their lives in a fire or explosion last year, the highest number since 2010, the year of the first Study of Fire and Explosion Victims in Spain, prepared by Fundación MAPFRE and the Professional Association of Firefighter Technicians. (APTB). There were 199 fatal fires that occurred in 2022, a fact that caused deaths to increase by 15% compared to the previous year.
Since the first report was prepared in 2010, the figure has been varying, always above 120 victims, and reached its previous peak in 2017, when this type of event claimed the lives of 212 people.
“The year 2022 only allows one qualifier when evaluating the data on deaths in Spain due to fires of all types: disastrous,” the document highlights. The total of 235 victims, 143 men (61%) and 92 women (39%), represents a rate of almost five deaths per million inhabitants. 220 died from a fire and 15 from an explosion, while 176 were registered in homes, which also means the highest number in this area since the study was prepared.
The majority of incidents (175) resulted in a single death, although the fire that claimed the most lives was that of a nursing home in Valencia in January, killing 9 people. Also especially tragic were the forest fire in the Sierra de la Culebra (Zamora), with four victims, or those that occurred in homes in Barcelona and Álava, with four and three deaths respectively.
The group most commonly affected by fires, both in homes and in general, are people over 64 years of age, an age group in which 121 people died last year. The highest groups are those between 60 and 64 years old, with 27 victims, and those between 65 and 69 or 80 and 84, with 26 respectively. However, the highest number of deaths is in the group over 94 years of age, with 36 deaths per million inhabitants.
The risk of mortality in people who live alone multiplied by six, the report highlights, something that is worse for the elderly, who also suffer from limited capacities and their homes have obsolete facilities.
Two out of every three deaths are caused by poisoning by smoke or toxic gases derived from fire, followed by burns (27.7%). Those responsible for these deadly fires are usually electrical appliances or equipment (16.5%), products that give off heat (14.2%) or smokers (9.7%).
Furthermore, the study shows that 57% of deaths occur at night and that 59% occur in the coldest months, following the usual pattern of other years and indicating that “mortality from fires is directly linked to low temperatures and the use of heating systems”.
For this reason, the MAPFRE Foundation and the APTB demand a policy that “encourages the placement of smoke detection systems in private homes”, where there is greater “room for maneuver to reduce the tragic numbers.” In this way, the report indicates, it would be possible to standardize Spanish legislation with French, British or German legislation, countries where these devices are mandatory.
