Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

This note reviews the causes of fires in premises occupied by the distributive trades over the last twelve years. There was an increase in the numbers of fires in these premises but rather smaller than that for all buildings generally. The most striking increases occurred in fires caused by oil lamps and stoves and by children with matches. Two groups of fires in which the element of carelessness is considerable, viz, those due to smoking materials and the burning of rubbish doubled in frequency in the 12 year period. Smoking materials give rise to more fires in these occupancies than any other single cause