Domestic fires

It is estimated that about 2.6 million people in the UK rent flats, bedsits or a room in a house or hostel, and that 80% of these buildings have inadequate fire precautions. Four out of five were potential fire-traps with inadequate means of escape. About 150 a year die and 2,500 are injured in fires in these often shabby and ill-maintained buildings, housing an average of nine people. The risk of death from fire in such "houses in multiple occupancy" is eight to ten times higher than in a single-family home.