2003 saw 1,070 people killed in residential fires, up 78 from a year earlier and topping 1,000 for the first time since 1986, according to a report by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
The report, released Wednesday by the agency within the Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry, says the number of victims aged 65 and older totaled 610, or 57 percent.
The agency might submit to the current session of the Diet a bill revising the existing fire prevention law to make it obligatory for general residential buildings to install fire-alarm systems.
The agency's report says that in 2003, the number of fires declined by 7,322, or 11.5 percent, to 56,329, for the biggest year-on-year decline in the total number of fires since 1998.
But the number of deaths from fires rose by 19 from the previous year to 2,254, up for the third consecutive year, it says.
Fires that were deliberately set accounted for the single greatest cause of fires, at 8,227, or 14.6 percent, followed by gas or electric stoves at 5,856, or 10.4 percent, and suspected arson at 5,755, or 10.2 percent, it says. Cases of arson and suspected arson together accounted for about a quarter of all fires in 2003.
Unextinguished cigarette butts were the cause of 5,317 fires, or 9.4 percent, it says.
Blazes involving residential and other buildings were the most common, at 32,383, followed by vehicle fires at 7,373, forest and bush fires at 1,820 and fires on vessels at 135, it says.