This paper focuses on the matters concerning residential fires in the City of São Paulo through the analysis of data collected in a four-years period (1 994-1 997) by the Fire Department of State of São Paulo using an improved collecting system. It aims at pointing out the method used to analyze the particular problems detected in the City of São Paulo, in order to contribute to the development of such studies in other mega cities located in developing countries with situation similar to the ones met in São Paulo. This situation is mainly caused by the lack of a systematic analysis of fire statistics and its application on fire prevention and protection activities such as public education, inspection, development and revision of standards and codes, improvements in fire services, etc.