Department for Communities and Local Government

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• Fire Statistics Monitor Quarter 4: 1 January 2008 - 31 December 2008

Fire and emergencies

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Summary

The latest National Statistics on fires, casualties and false alarms attended by the Fire and Rescue Services in the United Kingdom, produced by Communities and Local Government, were released on Friday 25 September 2009 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

Statistics in this release cover a range of issues concerning fire incidents in the United Kingdom including fires, casualties and false alarms attended by the Fire and Rescue Services in the United Kingdom from 1 January - 31 December 2008.

The key points are:

• The United Kingdom Fire and Rescue Services attended 727,000 fire and false alarm incidents in 2008 - a 10 per cent decrease on 2007. In England, 567,000 incidents were attended (also a 10 per cent decrease).
• Total fires fell by 15 per cent to 327,000 for the UK and 15 per cent in England (to 252,000).
• Total fire deaths for the UK increased by 2 per cent to 453, contrary to the long term downward trend. Within this, there were 342 fire deaths in England, up by 1 per cent.
• Primary fires in the UK fell by 10 per cent to 130,000. Within this, dwelling fires fell by 6 per cent to 50,000 and fires in other buildings - including workplaces and areas where people gather - were down by 12 per cent to 27,000. Road vehicle fires fell by 13 per cent to 44,000.
• Primary fires in England fell by 10 per cent to 106,000. Within this, dwelling fires fell by 7 per cent to 39,000 and fires in other buildings were down by 12 per cent to 23,000. Road vehicle fires fell by 13 per cent to 37,000.
• UK secondary fires fell by 19 per cent to 186,000, as with England, where they also fell by 19 per cent to 138,000.
• Attendances to UK false alarms decreased by 5 per cent to 399,000. Within this there was an 18 per cent fall (to 25,000) in malicious false alarms and a 2 per cent fall (to 266,000) in false alarms due to apparatus.
• In England, attendances at false alarms decreased by 6 per cent to 315,000. Within this there was a 19 per cent fall (to 18,000) in malicious false alarms and a 4 per cent fall (to 209,000) in false alarms due to apparatus.

Order

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

Download

• Fire Statistics Monitor Quarter 4: 1 January - 31 December 2008
  PDF, 624 kb , 14 pages
• Fire Statistics Monitor: Q4 2008 - Tables 1 and 2
  MS Excel, 170 kb
• Fire Statistics Monitor: Q4 2008 - Tables 3a to g
  MS Excel, 243 kb
• Fire Statistics Monitor: Q4 2008 - Tables 4a to c
  MS Excel, 173 kb
• Fire Statistics Monitor: Q4 2008 - Tables 5a to d
  MS Excel, 248 kb
• Pre-release Access list: Fire Statistics Monitor
  PDF, 13 kb , 1 pages

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Related publications

• Fire Statistics Monitor Quarter 3: 1 October 2007 - 30 September 2008

  • Published: 17 July 2009
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• Fire Statistics Monitor Quarter 2: 1 July 2007 - 30 June 2008

  • Published: 8 May 2009
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• Fire Statistics Monitor Quarter 1: 1 April 2007 - 31 March 2008 (correction)

  • Published: 20 February 2009
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