The fire is both “a blessing & scourge to the mankind”.

ABSTRACT

Man has always needed fire either to prepare his food to satisfy his hunger or to induce warmth during winters. Simultaneously he is constantly exposed to the hazards of burns, which begins right from the day one of his life, when the maternity nurse gives him the first hot water bath. That is why it is said, “The fire has been both a blessing and scourge to the mankind”. The present study was conducted in department of forensic medicine PDU Medical College, Rajkot during the period from Nov. 2004 to Oct. 2005 with a view to study the profile of burn cases brought for the post mortem examination. All the data related to age, sex, marital status, type and manner of burns with area involved, and survival time were recorded with detailed autopsy examination and subsequently analyzed statistically. We reached at a conclusion that majority of the victims were married females of younger age group between 20-40 years, with an extensive accidental flame burns.