Fire is a hazard that continues to claim many lives annually; it remains an untamed emergency and will affect the elderly significantly. Once a fire starts in any place the elderly may have less chance to run away from the fire or call fire emergency to respond to the fire, they are therefore more vulnerable to injury and/or death caused by the fires. People will normally die from being overcome by gasses, smokes or toxic fumes, while others will suffer from burns. Factors such as poor mobility, reduced tolerance to smoke and burns, reduced sense of smell are some that contribute to exposing the elderly to fire fatalities. Additionally most of the elderly will live alone in their homes and hence in case there is a fire they may find it difficult to move out or reach the telephone to notify the fire department. This paper focuses on the issue of fatal fires and categories of people that are at higher than average risk of being involved in fires and of being injured or killed as a result, it identifies the vulnerable elderly. Areas discussed include statistical data, fire toxicity, the social and …show more content…
The chemical composition of smoke may have very many unlimited substances and hence the composition of chemicals is informed by the molecular composition of what is burning (Alarie, 2002 p.260). If the room burning contains nitrogen from PU foam, PAN, or nylon the smoke will contain hydrogen cyanide (HCN). If the room burning has PVC i.e. chlorine then the smoke will contain hydrogen chloride, if it is fluorine, then the smoke will contain hydrogen fluoride or if it is bromine then the smoke will contain hydrogen bromide. Such toxins will cause irritation and choking to the person that is caught up in the