Modelling Potential Socio-economic Determinants of Building Fires in South East Queensland

This paper investigates the relationships between areas of building fire incidence, levels of socio-economic disadvantage and the underlying socio-economic characteristics in the South East Queensland (SEQ) region, Australia. Disaggregated fire incident data was acquired from the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service (QFRS) and then aggregated to the Statistical Local Area (SLA) level. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) defined index of socio-economic disadvantage (called 'SEIFA') has been used as the basis to identify relationships between socio-economic disadvantage and building fires. A regression model was then developed to predict the incidence of building fires using a range of socio-economic variables. Five significant predictors were identified that include: i) percentage of unemployed, ii) proportion of Indigenous population, iii) families living in separate dwellings, iv) one parent, and v) parent families with children less than fifteen years of age. Results also show that the distribution of building fires varies markedly across the SEQ region, with some of the Brisbane inner suburbs, areas of high socio-economic disadvantage, and parts of inland SEQ associated with relatively high fire rates.