Department for Communities and Local Government

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• Fire Statistics, United Kingdom 2008

www.communities.gov.uk

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Summary

The latest National Statistics and analysis in detail on fires, casualties, and false alarms attended by the Fire and Rescue Services in the United Kingdom were released on Friday 26 November 2010 under the auspices of the UK Statistics Authority.

Key points in the publication are:

• The majority of fire-related deaths occur in dwelling fires (three quarters in 2008). The highest fire fatality rates were for people aged 80 or over, and for males, and in Scotland
• Smoke alarms were absent from the fire area in 38 per cent of dwelling fires (18,600 fires). Of the total of 353 dwelling fires fatalities in the UK in 2008, 130 (37 per cent) of these fatalities were in fires where there was no smoke alarm present, and a further 100 fatalities (28 per cent) where a smoke alarm was present but did not operate.
• The proportion of households with a working smoke alarm increased rapidly from 8 per cent in 1988 to 70 per cent in 1994, and has continued to rise in recent years to 91 per cent in 2008.
• More than half (54 per cent) of accidental fires in homes arose from cooking. Other common sources of ignition were: electrical appliances (13 per cent), smokers' materials (7 per cent), electrical distribution (7 per cent) and space heating appliances (4 per cent).

Headline statistics for 2008 for the UK as a whole, and for England, are available to download below, along with the latest headline statistics for England from the provisional data in the Fire Statistics Monitor 2009/10.

The Fire Statistics United Kingdom, 2008 annual publication is available to download below.

Provisional headline statistics for 2009/10 were published on 20 August and are available from 'Related publications' below.

Errata

An errata was published on 19 January 2011. This note presents revisions made to data published in Fire Statistics United Kingdom, 2008.

Order

• This publication is only available online - see below to download.

Download

• Fire Statistics United Kingdom 2008 - Errata
  MS Word , 27 kb
• Fire Statistics, United Kingdom 2008
  PDF , 1790 kb , 76 pages
• Fire statistics UK - Headline figures for 2008, UK and England
  MS Excel , 21 kb , 1 pages
• Fire statistics UK - Latest headline figures for England
  MS Excel , 14 kb , 1 pages
• Fire statistics UK 2008 - Time series, Tables 1a - 16
  MS Excel , 399 kb , 20 pages
• Fire statistics UK 2008 - Annual data, Tables 17a - 24
  MS Excel , 402 kb , 12 pages
• Fire statistics UK 2008 - Long time series, Tables 25 - 28
  MS Excel , 89 kb , 4 pages
• Fire statistics UK 2008 - County and regional data, Tables 29 - 31
  MS Excel , 96 kb , 3 pages
• Pre-release Access list: Fire Statistics, United Kingdom
  PDF , 13 kb , 1 pages

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Alternative formats

If you require this publication in an alternative format please email alternativeformats@communities.gsi.gov.uk. Please note that the nature of content means that we may not be able to provide the Statistical series of publications in all requested formats.

Related publications

• Fire Statistics Monitor: April 2009 - March 2010

  • Published: 20 August 2010
  • Site: Corporate