An analysis of cooking fire injuries 2011 to 2022 in Merseyside UK

In England, cooking fires are the most common type of accidental dwelling fire. In this article we examine cooking fire injuries over the period 2011 to 2022 in Merseyside in the North West region of England. Cooking fire injuries occurred at all times of day, however mainly such injuries occurred during evening meal time. Almost 30% of cooking fire injuries occurred overnight (between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.). The risk of cooking fire injuries was present for all age groups, however this increased for those aged 75 and over, and increased further for those aged 85 and over. The greater the level of deprivation of an area, the higher the rate of cooking fire injuries. There was a strong correlation between the IMD decile (an English standard measure of deprivation) and the rate of cooking fire injuries per 100,000 population of 0.95. The use of a chip pan or deep fat fryer was associated with 35% of the cooking fire injuries over the period studied. The consumption of alcohol/drugs was a contributory factor in 17% of the cooking fire injuries over the time period studied.