According to FEMA, in the United States fire-related injuries rank fifth among unintentional injuries, after motor vehicle crashes, poisoning, falls, and drowning. One study on published medical examiner results revealed that 42% of unintentional fire and burn fatalities were intoxicated (with a blood alcohol level greater than or equal 0.1). Another study found that alcoholics in Toronto have a fire death risk 9.7 times that of the city’s population. Further, a study of deaths in North Carolina found that 53% (69 of 130) adult victims were intoxicated, and in Alabama, more than half of the victims older than 17 tested positive for alcohol. Of the 374 fire fatalities in Minnesota from 1996 to 2002, 133 (36%) were found to have positive blood alcohol concentrations.
Moral of the story? Don’t drink and cook.