FIRES IN BRAZIL: MAPPING AND LETHALITY

Abstract

Fires in Brazil, their mapping and lethality is a challenge for researchers and institutions. This work tried to shed light on the issue by presenting the geographic distribution of the 737,199 fires recorded by the Fire Departments of the 26 states of the Federation and the Federal District in a triennium (2017 - 2019). The number of possible deaths resulting from these events in the same period was also investigated, reaching numbers that exceed 2,500 deaths. Statistical documents from the 10 (ten) states with the largest population in Brazil (São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Pernambuco, Ceará, Pará and Santa Catarina) were analyzed for, among other considerations, to know the characteristics of the fires that most affect Brazilian cities. It is noteworthy that, on mean, three out of every four Brazilians live in these states and in 2017, in these same territories, 78.42% of deaths from fires in the country were recorded. Finally, the numbers of fires in Brazil are compared with the world standard and more specifically with six countries that have a population above 50 million inhabitants (United States of America, Russia, Vietnam, France, United Kingdom and Italy), observing coincidences such as the proximity in the percentage of fires in buildings and discrepancies as in the number of Professional Firefighters per 10 (ten) thousand inhabitants.