41 ms·

African Americans Have the Highest Rate of Fire Deaths and Injuries (2021)

26 points by frasermarlow 2y ago

diogenescynic 2y ago
Is it because they don't change the batteries on smoke alarms? I also saw that as the cause for African Americans having poor sleep in a recent study: https://sahanjournal.com/health/sleep-science-black-insomnia-health-equity-minnesota/ https://sahanjournal.com/health/sleep-science-black-insomnia...
- tflol 2y ago
  It's because in less fortunate communities code enforcement isn't as strict so smoke detectors do not have to be hardwired. edit: removed abrasive language edit: Love the immediate downvoting. Please present your evidence that hardwired smoke detectors has nothing to do with this.
  - anon291 2y ago
    I live in the whitest part of the whitest city in America (Portland). I am not white if that matters. Anyway, no one has once checked for hardwired alarms and we even had our whole home rewired (chose not to get hardwired alarms because they're a menace).
    - tflol 2y ago
      I'll submit and admit my experience is probably different than other regions in my country. However, from my professional experience in my region, the richest communities inspect for hardwired smoke detectors and the poorer communities don't care so much.
    - coolspot 2y ago
      > chose not to get hardwired alarms because they're a menace Checks out
      - anon291 2y ago
        I mean fair enough but they do randomly go off and when hardwired the whole house goes off. Not to mention it now requires an electrician to maintain
        tflol 2y ago
        The randomly going off thing can be made better by more expensive detectors. Sure, you need an electrician. This looks like lamenting the inconveniences of smoke detectors. My point is that hardwired smoke detectors function more consistently than battery powered ones.
anonporridge 2y ago
[flagged]
- GenerocUsername 2y ago
  Came here to share this. The background chirp of smoke alarms needing new batteries is a well understood phenomenon across the internet, but something I have never seen mentioned by the captured media, education, or government. This recognition of African American fire risk is the closest I have ever seen without being ripe with social justice style disclaimers
- nicklecompte 2y ago
  I can't help but notice that the meme starts with white comedians noticing how often it occurs among their (presumably largely white) listeners, and KnowYourMeme is quite unconvinced that "the issue is so common with black Americans." It seems like a joke became a meme, which almost immediately became a stereotype, sped along by social media irresponsibility. There's not a shred of actual evidence there; and even to the extent the data might shake out to support the claim, there are way too many confounding variables for you to be saying stuff like this.
vector_spaces 2y ago
African Americans are more likely to be lower income, lower income folks are more likely to live in housing that is not up to code (missing sprinklers, detectors, fire escapes, and run by slumlords who simply don't care in ways that would likely be shocking to most decent people who haven't lived near the poverty line), where many, many people live in a single unit to make it affordable -- or because e.g. an uncle just got out of prison or someone you know is having some kind of emergency. When you're poor, you have a lot of emergencies and you know a lot of people having emergencies. Someone in your network is always having an emergency. And yes, when you're making $9 an hour and your rent is 2/3 of your income, buying batteries for your chirping smoke detector is not top of mind. This is all a byproduct of centuries of brutal economic warfare. > "These risk factors appear to be related to socioeconomic status of the victim to a greater extent than one’s race," Onwuachi-Saunders wrote. (from the article linked below) But it turns out that in the US socioeconomic status and race are closely linked, at least in the aggregate. https://www.northjersey.com/in-depth/news/2022/02/03/fire-in-bronx-philadelphia-pa-black-poor-americans-increased-deaths/6648081001/ https://www.northjersey.com/in-depth/news/2022/02/03/fire-in...
- anon291 2y ago
  > But it turns out that in the US socioeconomic status and race are closely linked, at least in the aggregate In every country socioeconomic status is linked to subgroup culture and across the world different cultures have very different outcomes. That is not surprising. Neither the world nor people are uniform.
  - superb_dev 2y ago
    “It’s always been like this” has never been a good reason for things to stay the same.
    - anon291 2y ago
      I have offered no justification or even an insinuation that it should continue. However it is a common thought today that the US is particularly bad at race. It's not
decremental 2y ago
[dead]
samatman 2y ago
Seems to hold for vehicular accidents as well. https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/road-users/disparities-by-race-or-ethnic-origin/ https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/road-users/dispari...

26 points by frasermarlow 2y ago

Is it because they don't change the batteries on smoke alarms? I also saw that as the cause for African Americans having poor sleep in a recent study: https://sahanjournal.com/health/sleep-science-black-insomnia-health-equity-minnesota/ https://sahanjournal.com/health/sleep-science-black-insomnia...

tflol 2y ago
It's because in less fortunate communities code enforcement isn't as strict so smoke detectors do not have to be hardwired. edit: removed abrasive language edit: Love the immediate downvoting. Please present your evidence that hardwired smoke detectors has nothing to do with this.
- anon291 2y ago
  I live in the whitest part of the whitest city in America (Portland). I am not white if that matters. Anyway, no one has once checked for hardwired alarms and we even had our whole home rewired (chose not to get hardwired alarms because they're a menace).
  - tflol 2y ago
    I'll submit and admit my experience is probably different than other regions in my country. However, from my professional experience in my region, the richest communities inspect for hardwired smoke detectors and the poorer communities don't care so much.
  - coolspot 2y ago
    > chose not to get hardwired alarms because they're a menace Checks out
    - anon291 2y ago
      I mean fair enough but they do randomly go off and when hardwired the whole house goes off. Not to mention it now requires an electrician to maintain
      - tflol 2y ago
        The randomly going off thing can be made better by more expensive detectors. Sure, you need an electrician. This looks like lamenting the inconveniences of smoke detectors. My point is that hardwired smoke detectors function more consistently than battery powered ones.

anonporridge 2y ago

[flagged]

GenerocUsername 2y ago
Came here to share this. The background chirp of smoke alarms needing new batteries is a well understood phenomenon across the internet, but something I have never seen mentioned by the captured media, education, or government. This recognition of African American fire risk is the closest I have ever seen without being ripe with social justice style disclaimers
nicklecompte 2y ago
I can't help but notice that the meme starts with white comedians noticing how often it occurs among their (presumably largely white) listeners, and KnowYourMeme is quite unconvinced that "the issue is so common with black Americans." It seems like a joke became a meme, which almost immediately became a stereotype, sped along by social media irresponsibility. There's not a shred of actual evidence there; and even to the extent the data might shake out to support the claim, there are way too many confounding variables for you to be saying stuff like this.

vector_spaces 2y ago

African Americans are more likely to be lower income, lower income folks are more likely to live in housing that is not up to code (missing sprinklers, detectors, fire escapes, and run by slumlords who simply don't care in ways that would likely be shocking to most decent people who haven't lived near the poverty line), where many, many people live in a single unit to make it affordable -- or because e.g. an uncle just got out of prison or someone you know is having some kind of emergency. When you're poor, you have a lot of emergencies and you know a lot of people having emergencies. Someone in your network is always having an emergency. And yes, when you're making $9 an hour and your rent is 2/3 of your income, buying batteries for your chirping smoke detector is not top of mind. This is all a byproduct of centuries of brutal economic warfare. > "These risk factors appear to be related to socioeconomic status of the victim to a greater extent than one’s race," Onwuachi-Saunders wrote. (from the article linked below) But it turns out that in the US socioeconomic status and race are closely linked, at least in the aggregate. https://www.northjersey.com/in-depth/news/2022/02/03/fire-in-bronx-philadelphia-pa-black-poor-americans-increased-deaths/6648081001/ https://www.northjersey.com/in-depth/news/2022/02/03/fire-in...

anon291 2y ago
> But it turns out that in the US socioeconomic status and race are closely linked, at least in the aggregate In every country socioeconomic status is linked to subgroup culture and across the world different cultures have very different outcomes. That is not surprising. Neither the world nor people are uniform.
- superb_dev 2y ago
  “It’s always been like this” has never been a good reason for things to stay the same.
  - anon291 2y ago
    I have offered no justification or even an insinuation that it should continue. However it is a common thought today that the US is particularly bad at race. It's not

decremental 2y ago

[dead]

samatman 2y ago

Seems to hold for vehicular accidents as well. https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/road-users/disparities-by-race-or-ethnic-origin/ https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/road-users/dispari...