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Preventable fires have caused dozens of child deaths in the city over the last few years, according to a new report released yesterday by the city's health and fire departments. Second only to auto crashes as a cause of child fatalities, residential fires resulted in the death of a child under 12 years old in 43 cases from 2001 to 2006. According to the report, 85% of those fires were set by accident.
The fires were generally caused, or exacerbated by, a lack of smoke detectors or by children playing with matches. According to the report, working smoke detectors were installed in only one quarter of the homes in which a child fatality occurred. The fires were also concentrated in poorer neighborhoods and disproportionately occurred in public housing units, which account for 2% of city dwellings but 16% of the fires studied in the report.
"Parents and guardians must keep matches and lighters out of the reach of children." Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday. "When it comes to protecting children from fires, a little common sense goes a very long way."
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