They predict a 62% increase of dying from a house fire in the elderly by...eh..2020 or 2030. (Sorry I can't remember).
More old people live alone than decades before.
This is due to cutbacks in the subsidies for old peoples homes.
Last year many of them were closed and the people had to move into their own home again. Those who didn't have a home anymore were forced to rent or live with family.
Only those with huge medical problems were allowed to stay in a home.
In the sixties we had a huge discussion here in The Netherlands about old people living at their own home.
It was not right, was the conclusion.
People needed all sorts of care and where better could they receive that than at a home for the elderly.
The availability of nurses at all hours, centrally cooked dinners, no need to fetch groceries, control of medication and all sorts of other care could be given as cost-effective as possible.
All this was combined with a geriatric doctor in the house, a hairdresser, religious services and a lot more.
Quite some old family members lived that way.
Some having their own room, kitchen, shower and toilet behind a closed door with a doorbell at an outside corridor, some in a room with a kitchinette, toilet and shower, with a door that could be opened by the nurses, at an indoor corridor, and some at a multiple occupied room when they needed daily hospital care.
I[ve seen it all.
In case of a fire people were warned by the fire-signalling service, told what to do, and when they needed help to get outside there were well trained people available and even a warm place to hide. The firefighters had a direct automatic warning signal from the home so often they were already there before the fire was inspected.
Now people have to take the responsibility for everything themselves.
Last year there was a fire in an electric circuit of a restaurant at the ground floor of an apartment building.
The fire spread rapidly and when the firefighters arrived part of them tried to extinguish the fire and others tried to evacuate the building.
That was a huge problem.
Even though the fire was retained in a compartment of the building, the smoke was everywhere.
The old people were simply not quick enough the be away before the smoke penetrated everything.
4 people died, some where hospitalized for smoke inhalation.
It will take longer than a year before it's possible that people return to their home. So most decided to live elsewhere.
If the building had the same facilities as an old people's home those people wouldn't have died.
It's so sad to see that the government refuses to take responsibility. It's all about money and where to save it.
When I'm old the care for old people will be so low that maybe we have just a small room to live in and we'll be very poor. When we haven't died from our diseases, because even in the health care the cutbacks are enormous.
How is it possible that after WW2 people were able to built a successful economy and a well functioning society and now all is disappearing?
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