The Earthquake in the Aegion Region in 1995

Disasters are tragedies that overwhelm our communities, destroy our property, and harm our populations.In recent years, because the environment has been changing from agriculture to industry, the fire disaster has become the major cause of damage to people's life and property in our society.Fire disaster differs from any other form of disaster in a number of specific ways.It differs first of all in its cause, fire particularly has an increased destructive effect on material goods and livings.For preventive purposes, we report on an analysis of fire disasters in Taiwan from 1978 to 19.96 including:1) Incidence-the two peak years were 1983 and 1986; 2) Season index-the most common months are January, October, November and December; 3) Cause-except unknown origin, electrical, wilderness fires, smoking, cooking, and mechanical abrasion; 4) Duration-first: from 12:00 to 15:00, second: from 15:00 to 18:00; 5) Mortality-the mortality depends on the increase in population using the city rate: Taiwan, 2.77%; Taipei, 6.18%; Kaohsiung:,4.42%;6) Burns-by age and gender: peak in 0-2 years and 19-45 years; Male > Female; and 7) Causes of burns-most frequent relate to scalding injuries, second: flame.Conclusion: Fire disasters occur during the Winter season and in the afternoon; the causes of fire disaster depend on building structure; and the mortality rate of fire disaster is high in the city.Therefore, prevention of fire disasters is important:1) Efficiency of fire defense system in buildings is directly or indirectly involved; 2) Efficient program of education of the population must be popular and must include the public and the operative, medical, paramedical, and voluntary forces; 3) Development of plans in the medical hospital so that they are prepared against fire disasters; 4) Establishment of the triage pathway for burned patients in fire disasters; and 5) Setting up a network of prehospital care, emergency medical services system and in-hospital care during fire disasters.