Introduction
The world is mostly faced by catastrophes of which some are natural while others are caused by man or some other things. Whatever the case, the results of any catastrophe are not pleasant at all. A house fire is one catastrophe or rather incident which has been experienced since time in memorial. Something always happens and leads to a house fire occurring. The incident is actually one of most recorded and evidenced over the years. The occurrence of a house fire has however been attributed to causality as Gasking puts it; it basically means that some event must have occurred before and that is what led to the second event which is the fire in this case. This is what mainly happens in most cases, the events may be caused by man or something else.
Thesis statement: House fires are as a result of causal events and also human error which plays a big role in this, that is basically the main point of focus.
Causality as David and Jackson put it, is generally or rather simply a sort of relationship between events whereby the first event determines the occurrence of the second event. In short the second event relies on the first event. Following from this definition of causality, house fires occur as a result of causal events. For instance a house might be having a gas leak and a person without knowing ignites a cigarette or even a matchstick.
Gasking, D. (1955) "Causation and Recipes" Mind (64): 479-487.
The end result for this is that there will be an explosion as gas easily catches fire. In the end a house fire would be experienced following from the causal events the first being the gas leak and then the cigarette smoking or the igniting of a matchstick. This therefore means that a house fire cannot just happen without a series of events being evidenced. There must be a couple of events in order for the incident to happen.
Pearl, Judea. Causality: models, reasoning and inference. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Print.
There are many incidents and also factors as stated by Pearl, which may lead to a house fire occurring. In most cases house fires occur in homes where there is a smoker or even smokers. Smoking is one habit which has caused many people to loose their lives not health wise but in disasters like the one being discussed. Individuals who smoke should be careful and regulate the habit as catastrophes may occur.
Byrne, R.M.J. (2005). The Rational Imagination: How People Create Counterfactual Alternatives to Reality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
It is quite unfortunate that some people just doze off and leave a cigarette burning not knowing that they could unknowingly hit it an may be fall on something flammable. The individual during this time would still be asleep while the fire is spreading. The smoke is what mostly wakes them up but that is usually too late. Some perish while others are lucky to escape but with burns signifying lifelong marks which they would live with forever. Just to mention the fire in this incident is a result of causal events. In general Bynre addresses this by saying that people create their own misfortunes.
Cheng, P.W. (1997). "From Covariation to Causation: A Causal Power Theory." Psychological Review 104: 367-405.
Apart from that there is also the incapacitation of smoke alarms. This means that incase of any emergency the smoke alarms would not be in a position to function properly. Therefore there would not be any alert and thus if a fire is about to start, it would easily do so. For this reason, smoke alarms should be checked or rather serviced regularly in order to check their status and also efficiency in performance. It is hence a challenge to individuals to keenly check the status of their smoke alarms if they have them installed in their premises. Cheng states that causality is the main cause of such incidents as the one described above.
Shafer, Glenn. The Art of Causal Conjecture. Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996. Print.
Human Beings as Shafer puts it, also play a role in the occurrence of house fires. As it happens, ignorance and forgetfulness as well as irresponsibility are some of the traits that human beings never miss to exhibit. It is because of this that many catastrophes occur let alone house fires. For instance the forgetting of the burning cigarette and falling asleep is one example of how forgetful people are. Ignorance comes in where an individual finds it hard to may be replace a worn out battery in a smoke alarm with a new one. The fault lies to them as they are the main cause of the house fires if they occur. The results as mentioned above are not and have never been pleasant. People die, others loose homes, others get burnt and thus left with lifelong burns. The consequences are just as devastating as the catastrophe itself and quite frankly it would have been avoided if people were a bit more considerate and responsible.
Russell, B. (1948) Human Knowledge. Simon and Schuster.
Being that house fires are a result of causal events, there are some theories or rather beliefs that this is not entirely the case. Some people have it that house fires are just caused by fire. There is no explanation as to where the fire came from or how it started but the main thing is that it led to the occurrence of a house fire. This is just one of the views among others that people have. However it is not solid since there are some loose ends like the explanation of how the fire started in order to cause the house fire. This therefore proves it that there must have been another event before which led to the fire and then to the house fire. Causality is the only way in which the incident could have occurred thus qualifying it to be the best explanation.
Reason, J. T. Human Error. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Print.
Reason has it that causality is taken to be as a result of human error. This is when an individual causes an event which then leads to another disastrous event occurring. It can be attributed to the incident of a person falling asleep and leaving a burning cigarette not knowing that it could cause a fire. This is juts but one of the instances where causality is taken to be as a result of human error. Basically the main point here is that human beings are the ones responsible for the causal series of events. If they were somewhat responsible enough then some of the catastrophes that occur like house fires would be totally avoided and consequences would be in turn evaded.
Conclusion
The issue of an event leading to another horrible event is attributed to causality. This is as said there on earlier the relationship between one and the other the first being the determinant of the second. House fires have been known to occur through causal events. The issue of having a smoker in the house and also individuals not changing batteries to their smoke alarms is what has attributed to some of the house fires. There has been however some views that house fires are not necessarily caused through causal events but by fire alone. Those who claim this do not have an explanation as to how the fire started. This therefore concludes that house fires are catastrophes which are caused through causal events.
Work cited
Gasking, D. "Causation and Recipes" Mind (64): 479-487.
D, David & Jackson, Albert. Popular Mechanics Complete Home How-To. New York: Hearst Books, 2004. Print.
Pearl, J. Causality: models, reasoning and inference. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Print.
Byrne, R.M.J. The Rational Imagination: How People Create Counterfactual Alternatives to Reality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Cheng, P.W. "From Covariation to Causation: A Causal Power Theory." Psychological Review 104: 367-405.
Shafer, G. The Art of Causal Conjecture. Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996. Print.
Russell, B. Human Knowledge. Simon and Schuster.
Reason, J. T. Human Error. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Print
