Senior citizens and children under the age of five have the greatest risk of fire death. The fire death risk among seniors is more than double the average population. The fire death risk for children under age five is nearly double the risk of the average population. Children under the age of ten accounted for an estimated 18 percent of all fire deaths in 1995. Over 30 percent of the fires that kill young children are started by children playing with fire.
Men die or are injured in fires twice as often as women.