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Friday, May 19, 2006

Blacks' rate of fire deaths is higher

By Andrew Welsh-Huggins
Associated Press

COLUMBUS - Dion Echols and his sister Deanna Pinson were playing by themselves
with matches or a lighter when a midday fire broke out of control in Dayton three years
ago, killing both.

Two factors contributing to their deaths are common in fire fatalities. The house in
an older neighborhood lacked working smoke alarms, and both victims were very
young - Deanna 5 years old, Dion, 3.

Both victims were also black, yet another risk factor given statistics showing that
[color="Red"]blacks die in fires of all causes at more than twice the rate of whites, according
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

From 1999 through 2003, 4,883 blacks died from fire, according to the data, or a rate
of 2.63 deaths per 100,000. By contrast, the rate for the 13,755 whites that died
during the same time was 1.18 per 100,000. [color="red"]Fire experts blame the higher risk
for blacks on poverty, housing conditions and other socio-economic factors. [color="Blue"](aka, TNB)

In Cleveland, arson fires killed four young children in April and nine people, including
eight children, 11 months earlier, on May 21, 2005. No one has been charged in either
crime. All of the victims were black.

Many blacks live in big cities, and arson rates are higher in such cities, according
to the Massachusetts-based National Fire Protection Association, a nonprofit organization
of firefighters, builders and other trades people that researches fires and their
causes and creates fire safety codes.

A year ago in Trenton, N.J., for example, a 24-year-old man and his two daughters,
ages 7 and 6, died in a fire that authorities said was set in retaliation by gang
members. All three were black.

In 2002, an arson fire killed a Baltimore couple and their five children after they
complained to police about drug dealing in their neighborhood. All were black.

Cleveland has a black population of about 54 percent, while Trenton's is 52 percent,
according to Census data. Blacks in Baltimore make up about 65 percent of the total.

Floria Harper lost her daughter, Pamela, and 8-year-old granddaughter, Ti'ana,
in a 2003 Columbus house fire that police and fire officials ruled suspicious.
"The thing that bothers me the most about it is the fact that there's someone
out there that's walking around with murder in their heart," said Harper, 63, of Milwaukee.

U.S. Fire Administration data has found direct links between poverty and fire risk. Blacks
had the lowest median income of any racial group in 2004, or $30,134, and the highest
poverty rate at 24.7 percent, according to Census data.

"We're not talking about a risk to racial populations so much as a risk to a disadvantaged
population," said John Hall, an analyst at the fire protection association.

Poor people in general tend to have fewer smoke alarms, and fewer smoke alarms that
work, said
Dr. Mick Ballesteros, a CDC scientist who studies causes of unintentional fires. They
also live in older buildings that are harder to get out of in emergencies, such as high-rise
apartments.

"Fire fatality rates go where the poverty is," Ballesteros said.

The fire death rate also is higher for American Indians, although at 1.59 per 100,000 it
trails the rate for blacks. The rate is lowest - 0.42 - for Asians and Pacific Islanders,
according to CDC data. The rate for Hispanics is 0.66.

Among children, those under 5 are at the highest risk for fire death, and among
those, black and American Indian children are at even greater risk, according to the
U.S. Fire Administration.

[color="Red"]An association representing black firefighters has made the prevention and reduction
of black fire deaths a priority. Too often the issue is not seen as a mainstream
American problem, said Johnny Brewington, president of the International Association
of Black Professional Fire Fighters and a Cleveland fire official.

The problem won't end until "this situation is viewed as a national problem," Brewington
said. "Not just an African-American problem, or not just a low-income problem."

In the Dayton fire, on April 11, 2003, the children's grandmother had fallen asleep
downstairs and the children were playing in an upstairs bedroom. Dion was found in
that room, while Deanna was found hiding in a cardboard box in the room next door.

A smoke detector in the living room didn't have a battery. The family had lived in
the house about six weeks. [color="Blue"](niggers/fire = oil/water)