Ok. Well, alcohol and drug abuse disregard economic status. There's a higher proportion of lower economic level folks not being able to afford heating oil, so they buy 5 gal of kerosene and a cheap heater. Then they refill it inside cause its cold out, and they're on the 3rd floor. Well, do that enough times and you're gonna have a fire.
And yes, insurance actuaries have it down to a science, and can even assign that dreaded $ figure on what the cost of a human life is to our society. Give em an equation and they can plug in the numbers, no matter how much it irks the wiberals to do something as obscene as assign a dollar to human life. How do you think they develop life insurance rates? You're a 25 year old nonsmoking female, you SHOULD pay less than a sickly 3-pack a day 200 Lb overweight male. That's not inequality; its the consequence of bad decision making. And those that believe in EQUALITY such that 20 year old male teens tend to drive their jeeps into trees and rivers while intoxicated should pay the same rates as a female driving to church on Sunday and never had an accident, well, that's just turning a blind eye to reality and distributing costs regardless of the facts and relevant criteria and history. Why change behaviors if there's no consequence? Why work if unemployment pays the same? Why go thru the risk, financial and sweat equity investments in starting a business that will create wealth and new jobs if the govt is going to take 40% to 50% of your earnings? I'm going to move to Nebraska and get me a union pension plan that won't be taxed at 40% and since I'm in Nebraska, I won't have to pay for health care anyway. Perfect example of bad politics and pork barrels at work. Why shouldn't Nebraskans have to pay for health care? Because they had more political clout. I'm no longer an AARP member because I don't think its right to saddle my grandkids and their grandkids with the costs of taking care of my generation. I thought I'd simplify what you were taking a page to say- so I need to stop a couple sentences ago...and I didn't even throw in the story about the rich Sr VP of an oil co whose son was a friend of mine- 6:30 pm and he came down the stairs on his butt and wasn't cognizant of any of it. So abuse is not the exclusive province of the poor. Sports stars next? glc -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ron Greenman Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 5:06 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: More fires? I'd like to see the source of the data for that study and also who made it and for whom. There is clear statistical data that likes cigarette use with economic status and cigarette use with vehicle accidents and hence car insurance rates. I always trust the insurance actuaries with crunching numbers accurately and though the two references above aren't necessarily linked to fires we do find that statistics show most fire deaths attributed to fires are at night and many start due to unattended smoking materials. Also alcohol and drug abuse (not necessarily use) occur more frequently with economic disadvantage that abuse would tend to exacerbate inattention to smoking materials, and, as already addressed, the same economic group is using/abusing tobacco. Now economic status in and of itself may be a secondary in this bit of calculus and the main factor, as some suggest, may be higher levels of education, but there's statistical data to show that education is directly related to economic status in a quid pro relationship. Does the cart come first or the horse? I don't know, but at some level it seems to me that economic levels directly affect who gets a fire. Whether that applies to economic downturns or upswings, as suggested at the beginning of the post, I'd speculate no, since the increase in unemployed and therefore the increase of lower income individuals is an after the fact result and that these individuals that have joined the ranks of the economically depressed didn't miraculously lose their former level of education nor their self-opinion of their place in the society. Two-hundred pages more and I'll have a dissertation. On Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 7:01 AM, Chris Cahill <[email protected]> wrote: > I saw a study back in the late '90's that dispelled the economy relationship > to fires. Kind of like the myth of full moons linked to anything. There is > however a slight uptick in the winter and more predictable with unseasonable > cold weather. If it's been cold you might just be seeing that normal > increase from people staying inside more than usual. You know the old saying > about men, women and children being the 3 most common causes of fire. > "Honey, its cold out, why don't we skip Aunt What's Her Name 164th birthday, > light some romantic candles, throw some wood in the fire place that hasn't > been used in years and burn down the house after we fall asleep." > > Also don't trust the news if that's where the thought of more fires comes > from. Remember a bunch of years ago the great shark menace on the east > coast where they publicized every shark bite. Well turns out it was a below > average year for shark bite. Also there is nothing like reporting fires and > the "poor" FF that have to go out in this weather on a slow news day. > > Chris Cahill, P.E. > Fire Protection Engineer > Sentry Fire Protection, Inc. > > 763-658-4483 > 763-658-4921 fax > > Email: [email protected] > > Mail: P.O. Box 69 > Waverly, MN 55390 > > Location: 4439 Hwy 12 SW > Waverly, MN 55390 > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of J. Scott > Mitchell > Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 8:20 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: More fires? > > Not surprising at all considering the "trickle up poverty" economics. > > J. Scott Mitchell, P.E. > > --- On Sat, 1/30/10, Todd - FPDC <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Todd - FPDC <[email protected]> > Subject: More fires? > To: [email protected] > Date: Saturday, January 30, 2010, 7:00 PM > > Is anybody else seeing an increase in the number of fires in there > area? It seems like there are a lot more on the news on the CT area. > Mostly residential. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Sprinklerforum mailing list > [email protected] > http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum > > For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] > > To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] > (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) > > _______________________________________________ > Sprinklerforum mailing list > [email protected] > http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum > > For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] > > To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] > (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) > -- Ron Greenman Instructor Fire Protection Engineering Bates Technical College Tacoma, WA Member: SFPE, ASCET, NFPA, AFSA, NFSA AFAA, WSAFM _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
