Heavy drinking plus smoking = fire risk

Heavy drinkers may die needlessly in house fires that would otherwise have been escapable, researchers in Australia suggest. Lead researcher Dorothy Bruck of Victoria University in Melbourne examined coroners' records for 95 fire victims and found that 58 percent had positive results on blood-alcohol tests -- often with very high alcohol levels. The intoxicated victims were less likely than sober ones to have had obstacles preventing their escape from the fire -- like barred windows or an exit route that was blocked by the fire -- and at least some intoxicated victims might have survived had they been roused in time. Most of the victims in the study were alone at the time of the fire, and many were asleep. Well-placed smoke detectors or having other, sober people in the house would have protected some, Bruck said. However, mixing smoking and drinking is dangerous. Those who had been drinking were about 4.5 times more likely to have died in fires that involved "smoking materials," like discarded cigarettes, Bruck said. "A key message is that smoking and drinking together constitute a high-risk activity, even in your own home," Bruck said in a statement. The findings are published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.