An analysis of fatal unintentional dwelling fires investigated by London Fire Brigade between 1996 and 2000

London is a large capital city with a population of approximately seven million people. It shares many problems with other large cities around the world, including deaths due to re. Many of these re deaths can be linked to social problems such as poor housing, loneliness, illness, etc. Data from the London Fire Brigade Real Fire Library— a unique database of information collected from real re incidents by dedicated teams of re investigators operating in the Greater London Area has been used to obtain a range of statistics about fatal res and re death victims for the 5-year period from 1996 to 2000. Most deaths occurred in unintentional dwelling res. The statistical information has therefore been analysed to identify the main factors involved as to why people die in unintentional dwelling res and see what lessons can be learnt from these deaths. Common risk factors identi ed in the unintentional dwelling re deaths investigated include smoking, alcohol, old age, disability, illness, living alone, social deprivation and not having a working smoke alarm tted. Comparisons are also made with the results found from other studies and measures for preventing unintentional dwelling re deaths are examined.