Half of 2016 fire victims were pensioners, figures show

HALF of the 20 people who died in fires last year were pensioners.

New statistics, released by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, reveal a disproportionately high number of elderly victims, with eight men and two women over the age of 65 losing their lives in blazes during 2016.

The grim statistics from fire services all over the country reveal that in two of the cases, the suspected cause of the fire was a cigarette; one is thought to have been related to gas appliances; while another is suspected to have started in rubbish.

But the causes of most of the fatal fires are either unknown or under investigation. Seven out of the 20 fatalities from fires attended by fire brigades occurred in local authority properties around the country.

One record refers to the death of a pensioner in an ambulance fire outside Naas General Hospital in Co. Kildare. Another reveals that a young man aged between 15 and 24 lost his life in a car fire in Co. Waterford last September. The cause of the fire is recorded as unknown.

And in November, a man aged between 25 and 44 died in a caravan fire which started during the day in the Dublin city area.

Seven of the 19 fatal fires which claimed 20 lives last year occurred in rural areas, with two in villages and the remaining ten in urban areas.

The figures also give an insight into the time of the deadly fires, with many occurring during daylight hours. The new figures also show that Dublin City Council had five prosecutions over general obligations to prevent fire in 2016, along with one closure notice and three fire-safety notices, while Laois County Council issued seven closure notices.

The number of fatalities last year was just less than half of the deaths that occurred in 2015 when 41 people died in fires around the country.

In 2015, a disproportionately high number of pensioners also died in fires with 23 people over the age of 65 among the 41 fatalities that year.