“It’s not to say that poverty conditions invariably lead to fires,” said Birgitte Messerschmidt, director of research at the National Fire Protection Association. “But there is a link between socioeconomic status and fire that cannot be denied.”

Areas with more low-income people continue to see more deaths from fires despite decades of research and political promises to address the issue.

States with the highest death rates from fires between 2015 and 2019 also had the largest percentage of populations living in poverty, according to an analysis from NFPA.

In 2012, death rates due to smoke exposure were five times higher in counties where at least 20% of the population lived below the poverty line compared to counties where less than 5% of residents lived below the poverty line.

Read more at the link in bio.

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