Evaluating fire safety in older persons through home visits

The evaluate elders' risk factors for fire injury, we performed in-home assessments on our Geriatric Clinic clients. Nearly two-thirds of the subjects had physical impairments that could compromise escaping a fire. Fire safety equipment often was suboptimal. Nearly three-fourths of our subjects were not worried about fire injury, yet all had at least one fire injury risk factor. Fire safety knowledge was poor. Apathy was common, with fewer than one-third of our subjects complying with our recommendations.