- Author
-
Melkersson, M.
- Title
- Fire Incidence and Social Structure: The Influence of Social, Economic and Demographic Factors on the Risk of Fire in Swedish Municipalities.
- Coporate
- Defence Research Establishment, Stockholm, Sweden
- Report
-
FOA-R-97-00618-90-SE
December 1997
153 p.
- Keywords
-
fire risk
|
statistics
- Identifiers
- fire incidence; socioeconomic variables; regression analysis
- Abstract
- The aim of the study is to analyse which social, economic and demographic variables might explain the fire-risk structure in a municipality. This in order to optimize preventive and operationalaction by the emergencyThe aim is not to conduct a social science analysis to explain why fires occur but rather to examine non-causal relationships between fires and social, economic and demographic factors by means of statistical methods. Another aim of the study is to analyse if there are any differences in results according to the type of municipality, e.g. differences between city and rural municipalities. The study is divided into two main parts: a national study and a study of Jonkoping municipality. The main concrete conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that the risk of fires is greatest in areas with a large number of underprivileged persons. People living in these areas run a greater risk of being affected by fires than those living in other areas. The number of fires is consequently not just a technical coincidence but is to some extent also dependent upon the social composition of the area.