Fire-related fatalities are on the rise in Arkansas. The State Fire Marshal’s Office announced Friday that 50 people have lost their lives to fire this year. That’s 16 more deaths since June 30, when K8 News first reported on the increase in fire fatalities. That’s the highest death toll since 2016, when 47 people died:
- 2016: 47
- 2021: 38
- 2022: 35
- 2023: 34
- 2024: 27
Eddie Anderson, community risk reduction specialist for the state fire marshal’s office, said many of these deaths occurred in homes without working smoke detectors.
“If a fire breaks out, you typically have just two to three minutes to escape,” Anderson said. “Installing a working smoke detector can boost your chances of survival by 60 percent.”
According to Friday’s news release, recent data indicate Arkansas’s fire fatality rates per 1,000 are higher than the national average. “Smoke detectors save lives,” Anderson emphasized. “We encourage all Arkansans to take this simple, life-saving step to protect themselves and their loved ones.”
Jonesboro Fire Chief Marty Hamrick said while they are seeing the trend across the state, they are not seeing it in Jonesboro. He said that in recent years, the time to escape a home has gotten shorter.
“We’re seeing with the increase in all synthetics, the plastics, everything that’s in the home now. It happens so much faster,” Hamrick said. “What the data shows nationally is roughly from the time the smoke alarm sounds, you got roughly two minutes to get out of the home.”
