PROFILING FIRE-RELATED FATALITIES IN THE WESTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY AND COLLABORAIVE APPROACH TO BURN MORTALITY PREVENTION

Abstract

This project aims to distinguish the nature, characteristics and prevalence of fire-related fatalities within the Western Cape, so as to support the development of multi-disciplinary and evidence-based prevention/intervention strategies for the reduction of fire/burn mortality in the province. By addressing the prevention of fire deaths in human settlements – a critical and neglected focus area for communities - this project aligns with the Provincial Strategic Goals (PSG): ‘Increase Wellness, Safety, and Tackle Social Ills’ of the Provincial Strategic Plan 2014-2019, which speaks to both housing sustainability and community health and safety. In addition, it also relates to the role and outcomes of Western Cape Government (WCG) Disaster Management strategies in fire prevention. Through this study, the UCT-WCG collaboration will provide evidence-based contributions to understanding the aetiology and characteristics of fire-related deaths, and specifically in assessing the role and relevance of toxicological analyses in these cases. Insight into the role of alcohol and other drug intoxication in unnatural death is important in understanding risk factors involved in preventable deaths in WC. These interpretations may contribute to public and development, community safety, substance abuse education and intervention strategies (PSG1), and aiding in ways to develop sustainable living environments, and improving disaster management (PSG4). Given the large extent of this research project, and due to the fund limitation of the CHEC-WCG JTT Research Grant 2019, only two (2) initial components were covered by this funding. The researchers will seek additional research funding for the completion of the entire project and for development of a routine platform for monitoring of alcohol, inhalation toxicity and drugs in fire deaths in WC. The first component of this project was a systematic review entitled: “The role of alcohol and other drug toxicity in firerelated incidents in Africa”. The aim of this review was to create a platform of current research on intoxication in victims fire-related incidents on which to build using the WC mortuary data on fire deaths. Data synthesis for included articles is almost complete, and the researchers are finalising the findings for manuscript submission. The second component was a retrospective review entitled: “A retrospective investigation in fire-related deaths in the Western Cape, 2006- 2018”. This component has been split into two sub-components, one solely dedicated to the Salt River mortuary (SRM) facility – one of the busiest mortuaries in Cape Town - and one for the other mortuaries collated together. This separation stems from obtaining much more detailed autopsy and investigative records for SRM, thereby permitting an expansion of the investigation into fire deaths. The data for the rest of the other 15 WC mortuaries were obtained from Forensic Pathology Service routinely collected data. Collecting information on WC unnatural death cases presented to be considerably challenging as there are 16 mortuaries with an annual case load of >11,000 cases in the WC. Towards the earlier years, the availability of electronic case files is minimal and it has taken time for the researchers to track down information. This retrospective review is thus currently still at this phase for four remaining mortuaries after which all data collection will be concluded and the manuscripts finalised.