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What's behind the uptick in fire deaths in Massachusetts?
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Hold on to your hats! The heavy winds we had yesterday in Massachusetts haven’t blown away just yet. (And if you haven’t winterized your home for this season, now would be a good time.)
But first, the news:
PSA: While wildfires received a lot of local attention last year, it was the blazes that began indoors that proved much more deadly. In Massachusetts, 51 people died from fires in 2024 (not including car accidents), according to new data released by the state’s Department of Fire Services. It’s the highest number of fire-related deaths since 2017. Eighty percent of those deaths occurred at home, predominantly in single-family homes, department spokesperson Jake Wark told WBUR’s Dan Guzman. And older adults made up about half of those killed.
- Wark said many people don’t check their smoke alarms frequently enough, especially when they have lived in the same home for decades. “That can mean that no one is going in and doing the smoke alarm inspections that are required whenever a house is sold or transferred,” Wark said. “So you’ll often see older adults living in homes without working smoke alarms.”
- Investigators found working smoke detectors in just 14 of the 42 residential fires they responded to last year, Wark said.
- As a rule of thumb: Wark says smoke alarms should be checked once a month — and replaced every 10 years.
- The leading causes of fires: Smoking materials, like cigarettes. Wark said they led to 25% of the fire deaths last year.
- The silver lining: Massachusetts still has one of the lowest per-capita rates of fire deaths in the country. (New Jersey is the only state in the country with a better fire safety rate.) Wark attributed the low rate to “highly trained” fire departments in Massachusetts, the state’s fire code and a focus on fire safety education.
On Beacon Hill Gov. Maura Healey is working through a pile of over 120 bills that the Legislature dumped on her desk before 2024 came to an end earlier this week. She signed 27 of them yesterday, mostly having to do with local issues, such as renaming a bridge or parking fines in Provincetown. But the new slate of laws also includes regulations on mobile payment apps like Venmo and protections so truck drivers don’t lose their licenses over decades-old offenses.
- TBD: We’re still waiting on Healey’s decision on two eleventh-hour health care bills on drug costs and hospital oversight.
Meanwhile: State Auditor Diana DiZoglio says she’ll restart her audit of the State House today, with the new voter-approved rule specifying her authority now in effect. (For real this time!)
- Beacon Hill leaders have pushed back on the effort, citing the separation of powers in the state’s Constitution. DiZoglio says she’ll take legal action if they don’t comply, though it’s unclear if she’ll have Attorney General Andrea Campbell on her side. “I’m hoping that now that the voters have spoken — and they’ve spoken very clearly — that the attorney general will stand with the voters on this issue,” DiZoglio told WBUR’s John Bender.
On the road: Massachusetts is offering a new license plate design this year: white plates featuring angel wings and the words “overdose awareness.” WBUR’s Martha Bebinger reports the design comes from parents of children who died after an overdose. Cheryl Juaire, the founder of the support network Team Sharing, told Martha she hopes the plates spur discussions in parking lots and driveways about addiction: “The more we talk about it, the more the stigma ends.”
- Not just for show: The plates cost $40 and part of the proceeds go toward Team Sharing to help with holiday gifts and scholarships for children who lost a parent to an overdose, as well as funeral costs and awareness programs in schools.
P.S. — Two notable Massachusetts names received the Presidential Citizens Medals from President Biden yesterday. (That’s the second-highest presidential honor a civilian can receive, below the Medal of Freedom.) The 20 recipients included Mary Bonauto, an attorney who led the fight to legalize same-sex marriage in New England states and nationwide with Boston-based GLAD Law, and Bobby Sager, a photographer from Malden who traveled the world taking photos of children and families in poverty and conflict zones.
