Miami Fires in the Past Year
By: Anna Marie Penagos, Filippa Miller, and Maya Washburn.
Miami is well-known for its beautiful weather and beaches. Many people come here for vacation and unwind from their cold weather. However, since the temperature is increasing and hurricanes become more common which is leaving millions of trees fallen that might increase the chances of wildfires. The question is, What is the main cause of fires in Miami and how many there have been in the last week. Is there a fire station close by where the fires most commonly occur? Are there more house units where the fires occur? The main concern is if the public should be wary in certain home areas for the potential fire hazard that is represented in most current datasets.
Is there a connection with the fire stations, amount of house units and fires in miami? Since the most common reason for fires in Miami is due to cooking, we expect there to be more fires where there are more housing units. If there are fire stations close by they can prevent the fires from spreading and become disastrous, if they reach the fire early the casualties can rapidly decrease which is why it is crucial to have one close by whenever a fire occurs.
The City of Miami is the most populous city in Miami-Dade County, with a population of 442,241 as of the 2020 census. This is also the city in the county with the most number of fire stations. The City of Miami has 37 active fire stations, according to Miami-Dade County data. With this in mind we also found that in the past year there have been 47 fire reports in the Miami area as a whole. Seeing as this is very low compared to other places in the U.S, this can be due to many factors, such as fire stations being well trained and spread out, weather permitting safety compared to others, and proper safety measures. Seeing as Miami is clearly overpopulated, it is incredible to think that fires are not as common. However, this shows well for the fire safety and fire departments as they have kept the numbers low and controlled.The correlation between housing units and fire reports can also report that where there is a higher concentration of housing, there is a much higher probability of fire occurrences and reports overall.
Meanwhile, other cities such as Sweetwater and Hialeah Gardens receive less fire station access with only one station in their city. However, due to the low amount of fire alerts overall it probably goes to show that in that area fires are the least prominent, and since the housing is also not as high as other areas, there’s lower probability for fires across the board. Seeing as Miami is a very hot but also very humid climate year round, it is understandable that there is a lower probability of fires seeing as places with higher fire reports have much drier climates. It can be expected in the next year that fire reports will remain very low unless one of these aforementioned factors change drastically.
