Dwelling house fires (Scotland), investigation, data collection, analysis and sharing to augment the safety and well-being of occupants

Gavin, Iain Stewart (2022) Dwelling house fires (Scotland), investigation, data collection, analysis and sharing to augment the safety and well-being of occupants. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Fire deaths and injuries remain higher for the general population in Scotland in comparison to the rest of Great Britain; the instances are mainly attributed to accidental dwelling fires. The main contributor to death or injury for the occupiers is overwhelmingly smoke inhalation from the products of combustion. The smoke from modern fires is more toxic and more volatile than in previous years, due to the increased quantities of plastic materials commonly used.

This thesis intends to provide a meaningful contribution to the professions of fire science, medical treatment, and fire investigation by contributing to the improved health and wellbeing of not only occupants of dwelling houses, but also firefighters who attend fire incidents. Although individual reports and research publications exist for each of these disciplines very few, if any, address the combined contribution each has towards the improvements in fire safety or life safety in particular.

Research publications, official reports, conference papers, and presentations were used to establish the world's interpretation of the causes of accidental fire deaths and injuries and their preserved shortcomings to current practices towards remedial interventions and strategies.

As an in-depth analysis of the issue, fire deaths within Scottish dwellings via fire investigation and post-mortem reports were examined. This analysis was used to construct a multi-function searchable database for 139 fire fatalities within the three years studied.

The resultant outcomes for this research identified the deficiencies within fire death and injury data both in quality and availability, providing a justifiable case for additional research into both the use of antidotes for an emergency response to fire victims.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Colleges/Schools: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• Supervisor's Name: Storer, Dr. Timothy
• Date of Award: 2022
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2022-83290
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 02 Dec 2022 15:03
• Last Modified: 13 Dec 2022 12:21
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.83290
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/83290