COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL
GOVERNMENT News Release (277) issued by COI News Distribution
Service. 21 November 2008
The latest fire
statistics for the UK covering the 12-month period up to 31
December 2007 show a fall in the total number of fires (384,000)
in the UK - down 12 per cent.
The Fire Statistics Monitor is published quarterly by Communities
and Local Government and includes provisional figures on fires,
fire deaths and injuries, and false alarm calls.
Key statistics in today's monitor include:
* the United
Kingdom Fire and Rescue Services attended 803,000 fire and false
alarm incidents in the 12 month period ending 31 December 2007 -
an 8 per cent decrease on the previous 12 months
* there were
466 fire deaths in this period - down 5 per cent on the previous
12 months and the lowest figure since 1958. Dwelling fire deaths
fell by 11 per cent to 323. These fire death figures for the year
2007 are provisional
* primary fires fell by 10 per cent to
144,000. Within this, dwelling fires are at their lowest since
1977 (53,000, down 6 per cent), fires in other buildings -
including workplaces and areas where people gather - are down by 6
per cent to 31,000 and road vehicle fires fell (by 14 per cent to
51,000) to their lowest total since 1989. Secondary fires fell by
13 per cent to 231,000
* attendances at false alarms decreased
by 4 per cent to 419,000. Within this there was an 11 per cent
fall (to 30,000) in malicious false alarms and a 4 per cent fall
(to 271,000) in false alarms due to apparatus
The Fire Statistics Monitor is available on the Communities and
Local Government website. Also on the website is the latest annual
statistical bulletin, Fire Statistics United Kingdom, 2006, which
contains trends and analysis for the years 1996-2006.
Notes to Editors
1. The figures in the quarterly 'Fire Statistics
Monitor' publication are compiled from reports submitted to
Communities and Local Government on fires and false fire alarms
attended by the Fire and Rescue Services throughout the UK.
2. Detailed information is collected on all fires in buildings,
vehicles and outdoor structures and any fires involving casualties
or rescues (i.e."primary" fires). Less detailed
aggregated information is collected on "secondary" and
chimney fires; so subsequent analysis of them is limited.
3. "Primary" fires include all fires in buildings,
vehicles and outdoor structures or any fire involving casualties,
rescues, or fires attended by five or more appliances.
"Secondary" fires are the majority of outdoor fires
including grassland and refuse fires unless they involve
casualties or rescues, property loss or five or more appliances
attend. They include fires in single derelict buildings. Chimney
fires are any fires in occupied buildings where the fire was
confined within the chimney structure (and did not involve
casualties or rescues or attendance by five or more appliances).
4. A person whose death is attributed to a fire is counted as a
fatality even if death occurred weeks or months later. However, it
is not always the case that fire was the cause of death. The
latest figures for fatalities are provisional and subject to
revision as information supplied by the fire and rescue service
needs to be cross-checked against the cause of death that appears
on the death certificate. The main area of uncertainty is whether
fire was the cause of death in road accident fatalities.
5. Fire Statistics are part of the National Statistics series
which are produced to high professional standards, as set out in
the National Statistics Code of Practice. For more information on
National Statistics see http://www.statistics.gov.uk
News Releases: http://www.communities.gov.uk/newsroom