ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an examination of the 1970s as the "war years" of urban fires, highlighting the relationship between fire-risk and social inequality. Although the overall fire threat has diminished in the United States, it remains a social problem measured by dimensions of unequal risk. Outbreaks of fire and arson during the 1970s were concentrated in lower-income or changing urban neighborhoods. Three competing narratives therefore emerged to explain the phenomena. The first was the "built-to-burn" narrative, which emphasized factors associated with the built environment, human living densities, and the use of fire-safe technologies. The second narrative stressed "cycles of abandonment" and anomic social conditions associated with the collapse of urban housing markets. A third narrative also considered a community's socioeconomic circumstances but framed these in terms of the direct decisions by economic actors not to invest in a community, the speculative dynamics associated with urban real estate markets, and white collar crime.
