Prevalence of Probable Hoarding and Associated Consequences at the Scene of Mississippi Fires, 2009-2019

Background: Increased risk for fire is an often-discussed consequence of hoarding disorder; however, the source of this association has been largely through clinicians’ accounts or hoarding patients’ self-reports.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between probable hoarding and incidence of fires using archival data from Mississippi.Methods: Incidents of residential fires from 2009-2019 were provided by the Mississippi State Fire Marshal’s Office. Fires that were classified as having “a significant amount of fire load present” were classified as probable hoarding fires for analysis.Results: Of the 5,194 unique residential fires identified across the study period, 96 fires (1.9% of all residential fires) were classified as potentially linked to hoarding. Compared to fires not classified as probable hoarding fires, probable hoarding fires were more likely to have at least one individual injured (8.3% vs 5.2%) and to have one or more deaths (4.2% vs 2.1).Conclusion: Our results suggest that the recorded prevalence of probable hoarding at the scene of residential fires in the state of Mississippi is lower than national estimates of the incidence of hoarding; however, residential fires with probable hoarding conditions appear to be more deadly than other fires.