BOSTON (AP) -- The state fire marshal said that smoke alarms were missing in nearly half of Massachusetts' fatal fires in 2002.
``One-third of these cases were due to disabled smoke alarms. The other two-thirds did not have any smoke alarms at all,'' said Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan of the 55 fatal fires that year. ``These people mistakenly thought fire wouldn't happen to them.''
The total number of fires in 2002, according to the Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System, was 27,380, down 2 percent from the year before. The reporting system said 62 civilians and one firefighter were killed in those blazes, an increase of 5 percent from 2001.
Smoking continued to be the leading cause of fatal fires, dating back to the 1940s. In 2002, smoking caused 40 percent of fires in Massachusetts, and 39 percent of those that caused fatalities, Coan's office said.
The leading cause of fires in the home in 2002 resulted from cooking, and 49 percent of all residential fires originated in the kitchen.
