Warm winter helps Georgia lower fire death

Georgia could see fewer than 100 fire deaths this year — the lowest toll in nearly a decade, thanks to warm weather, according to the Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner’s Office.

“Most of our fatal fires do occur with people trying to keep warm,” Commissioner John Oxendine said. “That is the number one killer, so when you have a mild winter, that really does help.”

Statewide, the total number of fire fatalities has been declining since 2004, when 135 were killed in fires. Over the past decade, the number has risen and fallen, from a high of 196 in 1995 to a low of 97 in 1997 — the last year in which fewer than 100 people died. So far this year, 94 people have died in fires in Georgia.

Many fires happen in northwest Georgia, the coldest area, and in southwest Georgia. “There are more primitive heating conditions that you find in those areas, and that opens itself up for more accidents,” Oxendine said.

Portable heaters were blamed for as many as 22 deaths in 2003, but that number has dwindled to four this year.

Topics Georgia