Despite advancements in emergency response, preventable residential fire fatalities and injuries remain a significant concern for emergency services in Australia and New Zealand. The "Preventable Fire Fatalities in Australia July 2003 to June 2018" (Coates et al., 2019) report revealed an average of 64 fatalities per year, equating to an annual national death rate of 0.29 per 100,000 population. This equates to approximately the same number of deaths as occurred during the Black Saturday bushfires every three years. Notably, there was no clear decline in fatalities over the 14-year study period.
Studies have shown that at risk groups and vulnerable communities are disproportionately more at risk of dying in preventable residential fires and injuries (Barnett, 2008). Recent studies have linked the number of preventable fire fatalities to those receiving social services and have found a high number of decedents may have been accessing funded services at the time of the incident.
This session proposes that a synergistic approach, combining emergency response insights with public health strategies may significantly advance our goal of zero preventable residential fire fatalities. Through understanding the risk factors at a system level, rather than just an individual level, emergency services may be able to design prevention activities to target interventions for those most at risk.