Data are collected nationally on incidents attended by the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS), such as fires and road traffic collisions; and operational information on the FRS including: recruitment and retention, health and safety, fire prevention activity such as on Community Fire Safety and Fire Safety Audits of premises.
Publications
This Statistical Bulletin presents data on fires in Wales.
Data on fires attended by UK Fire and Rescue Service within the UK.
Presents data on fires attended in Wales
This Statistical Bulletin presents data on fire incidents in Wales
This Statistical Release contains statistics relating to operational issues affecting Fire and Rescue Services in Wales.
Presents findings from the first fire module of questions in the Survey of English Housing.
Statistics on grassland fire incident include data for Wales.
This Statistical Bulletin contains statistics on operational information about retained duty staff.
Overview
Communities and Local Government (CLG) works closely with the Fire and Rescue Service in order to coordinate the collection of consistent data such as on the occurrence of fires and other rescue incidents, and across the range of Fire and Rescue Service activities. The data support resource allocation by the Fire and Rescue Services, using tools and approaches such as FSEC (Fire Service Emergency Cover) and IRMP (Integrated Risk Management Planning.
Technical Data
Further technical information can be found within the relevant publication, typically in annexes (see publications tab).
Fire and Rescue Service
Incident Statistics:
Up to March 2009:
Fire and Rescue Service Staff completed a detailed Fire Damage Report (FDR1 form) for all “Primary” fires (see glossary for definition) which was submitted to CLG for processing.
Fire and Rescue Services also made monthly aggregate returns of the number of “Secondary” fires, Chimney Fires, Special Service incidents and False Alarms attended.
For Primary fires, data returns were made exclusively by paper forms prior to 1998, with 19 of the 58 UK’s Fire and Rescue Services switching to electronic data supply by the beginning of 2005, This equated to over 40% of all incidents, for which full incident details are in CLG’s database. For the remainder, key variables were entered for all incidents.
Further, full incident details were entered for all incidents involving any casualty for fatality. For those paper form incidents with no fatality or injury, full incident details were keyed in for one in five forms. Consequently some non-headline estimates e.g. total rescues published in Fire Statistics UK may differ from records held by Fire and Rescue Services.
From April 2009:
The new Incident Recording System (IRS) collects detailed records of all incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services, and all records are transmitted to CLG in full.
Quality Assurance is carried out by each Fire and Rescue Service. Additionally, CLG carries out a programme of quality assurance which is structured in four strands:
1. number of incidents and their record status
2. devising key outputs by fire and rescue service authority (FRA) and comparing trends across FRAs
3. examining the spread of values in key variables and comparing across FRAs
4. checking notable incidents for example, All with Fatalities, those marked as “with conditions” or “with queries”
Glossary
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Cause of fire
The defect, act or omission leading to ignition of the fire. This includes accidental fires, where the cause was not known or unspecified; and deliberate fires where deliberate ignition is merely suspected, and recorded by the brigade as ‘doubtful’.
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False Alarm
An event in which the fire and rescue service believes they are called to a reportable fire and then find there is no such incident. False alarms are categorised as: Malicious, where the call was made with the intention of getting the fire and rescue service to attend a non-existent fire-related event. This includes ‘deliberate’ and ‘suspected malicious’ intentions .Good Intent,, where the call was made in good faith in the belief that the fire and rescue service really would attend a fire; and Due to Apparatus, where the call was initiated by fire alarm and firefighting equipment operating (including accidental initiation of alarm apparatus by person.
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Fatal Casualty
A person whose death is attributed to a fire (as reported on the death certificate) is counted as a fatality even if death occurred weeks or months later.
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Fire control staff
Uniformed personnel who are employed to work in fire and rescue service control centres to answer emergency calls and deal with mobilising, communications, and related activities, regardless of rank.
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Heat or smoke damage only
These are reportable ‘fires’ where there is no fire damage. The damage reported may be due to any combination of heat, smoke and other which will include any water damage.
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Non-fatal casualty
Non-fatal casualties consist of persons requiring medical treatment beyond first aid given at the scene of the fire, and those sent to hospital or advised to see a doctor for a check-up or observation (whether or not they actually do). People sent to hospital or advised to see a doctor as a precaution while having no obvious injury, are recorded as ’precautionary check-ups’.
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Non-uniformed staff
Generally support/administrative staff employed by a Fire and Rescue Authority (FRA).
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Primary fires
These are reported fires (as listed below) or any fires involving casualties, rescues, or fires attended by five or more appliances. An appliance is counted if either the appliance, equipment from it or personnel riding on it, were used to fight the fire. Primary fire locations include: buildings; caravans and trailers; vehicles and other methods of transport (not derelict); outdoor storage, plant and machinery; agricultural and forestry premises and property; and other outdoor structures including post boxes, tunnels and bridges.
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Reportable fire
A reportable fire is an event of uncontrolled burning involving flames, heat or smoke and which the fire and rescue service attended.
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Retained duty system (RDS) firefighter
A person who contracts to be available for agreed periods of time for fire-fighting purposes, but who could have an alternative full-time employment.
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Secondary fires
These are reportable fires that were not in primary fire locations (see primary fires) and were not chimney fires in buildings.
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Source of ignition
The source of the flame, spark or heat that started the fire.
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Special Service Incident
Incident attended by Fire and Rescue Services other than fires.
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Spread of fire
The extent to which fire damage (as opposed to heat, smoke or other damage) spread, for example, beyond the room of origin.
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Wholetime firefighter
A person employed full-time as a firefighter regardless of their rank.
Contact Details
For statistical enquiries about this topic, please contact:
Communities and Local Government
Email: fireresearchandstats@communities.gsi.gov.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7944 4400
Communities and Local Government Eland House Bressenden Place London SW1E 5DU
