- Author
-
Chen, T. Y.
- Title
- Statistical Analysis of Hospitality Industry Fire Experience.
- Coporate
- University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
- Report
-
Fire Engineering Research Report 01/3
March 2001
151 p.
- Distribution
- For more information contact: School of Engineering, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand. Telephone: 643-364-2250, Fax: 643-364-2758, Website: http://www.civil.canterbury.ac.nz
- Keywords
-
statistical analysis
|
industries
|
methodology
|
injuries
|
hotels
|
restaurants
|
fire fatalities
- Identifiers
- international experience; background on hospitality industry; casualty fire experience and trends; comparisons between injury nd fatal fire incidents; restaurant/cafe/diner fire experience; takeaway bars/lunch bars/fish and chips
- Abstract
- By their very nature as transient properties, the hospitality industry brings a large number of people together in unfamiliar surroundings. In this report, data collected by the New Zealand Fire Service were used to identify the trends for hospitality industry fire experience. Overall, the hospitality industry stands not only for a high percentage of national economic development but also builds the reputation of New Zealand. A severe fire incident may cause job losses for an indefinite period of time, tradesmen and suppliers may lose a large and regular source of income, the town may lose one of its greatest assets and New Zealand's reputation might be damaged and tourism discouraged. Generally the number of fire incidents in the New Zealand hospitality industry has decreased since 1997. It was found that over the 15 years analysed, careless action was the most common cause, followed by suspicious, but these were not the most hazardous. The most hazardous fires were shown to be bedroom fires originating in soft furnishings. Almost all the fatal fire incidents could be associated with accommodation type properties, and most of them occurred at night-time when occupants were still asleep. Since the highest percentage of fire incidents occurred in wintertime, it was suspected that more frequent usage of heating appliances was the main cause. As opposed to fatal incidents, most incidents that lead to an injury originated in kitchens where the injured occupants were attempting to control the fire. Heat sources were mainly from cooking appliances with cooking material being ignited, and incidents mainly occurred at nighttime but not during sleeping hours. Restaurant/Caf/Diner as a subcategory of the hospitality industry stands out with the highest incidents with injury or incidents as a total.