Fatal dwelling-house fires account for 10% of all accidental deaths in the United Kingdom with one-quarter of the deaths being of elderly people. No study has described the characteristics of elderly individuals who die in fires. We report results from a retrospective review of all fatal dwelling-house fires in Scotland from 1980 to 1990. Of 1096 people dying in fires, 243 (23%) were aged over 75. When compared with patients under the age of 75, older patients were significantly less likely to have alcohol detected in their blood at the time of the fatal fire and significantly less likely to be smokers. Significantly more fires killing elderly people were caused by faulty or misused electrical items in the house, particularly electric blankets. These differences between elderly and younger individuals dying in dwelling-house fires may suggest that preventive strategies for the elderly population require a different emphasis from those for younger people.