Fire Statistics Scotland 2011-12

4. Commentary

This year the publication contains provisional data for 2011-12. These figures are still to be finalised but they provide a more timely aspect than was previously possible to publish. It is important to remember when using these figures that they are provisional and that they may be amended in future publications. This is especially true of casualties (see note 6.3.1 for revisions policy).

The figures for 2009-10 and 2010-11 have been revised and the figures provided here supersede those in the previous publications, and should be used in the reporting of fire statistics for Scotland.

For all Scotland level tables, figures are provided to cover a minimum of ten years. At FRS level, the tables are only produced for the most current financial year. There are additional datasets available that provide revised trend figures for the key statistics at FRS level over ten years at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Datasets/DatasetsFire

4.1 Total number of fires (Tables 1 and 1a)

In this publication, fires are classed as Primary, Secondary or Chimney.

Primary fires include all fires where one or more apply:

i) in non-derelict buildings, or in vehicles or outdoor stores

ii) any fire involving casualties, rescues,

iii) fires attended by five or more appliances.

In this publication, primary fires are usual split into 4 sub-categories: Dwellings, Other Buildings, Road Vehicles and Others.

Secondary fires cover the majority of outdoor fires including grassland and refuse fires unless they involve casualties or rescues, property loss or 5 or more appliances are in attendances.

Chimney fires are any fires in buildings where flame was contained within the chimney structure and did not involve casualties, rescues or attendance of 5 or more appliances.

In 2011-12 primary fires accounted for 39 % (12,400) of the total number of fires,
58 % (18,610) were secondary fires and 4 % (1,194) were chimney fires.

The total of all fires (primary, secondary and chimney fires) in Scotland for 2011-12 was 32,204, which is 17 % lower than the revised figure of 38,970 fires recorded in 2010-11.

The number of primary fires in 2011-12 was 12,400, a decrease of 6 % from the 2010-11 revised figure of 13,198. Within primary fires for 2011-12, the highest proportion were dwelling fires (50 %), followed by other buildings (22 %), fires in road vehicles (19 %) and other primary fires (9 %). The 2011-12 figures are the lowest number of primary fires in the last ten years.

Between 2010-11 and 2011-12, secondary fires decreased by 23 % to 18,610 and chimney fire figures decreased by 24 % to 1,194.

The total number of fires in 2011-12 (32,204) was the lowest value in the last decade. However there have been some large changes within the categories of fires. The number of secondary fires in 2011-12 has decreased by 43 % from 2006-07. As secondary fires are the highest proportion of total fires, changes within this category will have a greater influence over the total fire figure for Scotland. This year there has been a 23 % decrease in secondary fires that has been the major contributor to the 17 % decrease in all fires since 2010-11 (Chart 2).

Chart 2 - Fires by location, Scotland 2002-03 to 2011-12 ¹

Notes:

p - provisional

r - revised

1 - figures before 2009-10, for primary fires are based on sample data weighted to Fire and Rescue Service level

2 - does not include incidents that occurred during national industrial action in November 2002, January 2003 and February 2003

4.2 Casualties by location (Tables 2, 2a, 3 & 3a)

Casualties from fire are split into 2 categories: fatal and non-fatal. A fatal casualty is where a person's death is attributed to a fire, even if the death did not occur at the time of the incident. This data is provisional and may be revised, generally after fire investigations. Please see paragraph 6.3.1 for more details of the revision policy.

In Scotland in 2011-12 the provisional figure for fatal casualties from primary fires was 57- an increase of 5 from the revised figure of 52 from 2010-11. Of these provisional fatalities for 2011-12, 51 were in dwelling fires, and 47 of those were in accidental dwelling fires.

The provisional figures for fatal casualties from primary fires and from dwelling fires were both the third lowest in the reported ten year period. The figure for accidental dwelling fires fatal casualties was the fourth lowest in the same period.

In the previous year, 2010-11, there originally 47 fire fatalities reported in the provisional publication, but this figure has been revised to 52 in this publication. There were 3 incidents where fire investigations were on-going at the time of last year's publication. These have now resulted in the increase of the number of fire fatalities. The 2010-11 figures are still the second lowest in a decade, as reported in the previous publication. The 2009-10 figures have also been revised. There were originally 59 reported fire fatalities, which has now been revised to 62.

The provisional figure for non-fatal casualties in 2011-12 was 1,398. This is an increase of 5 % on the revised 2010-11 figure of 1,328. The highest number of non-fatal casualties in 2011-12 occurred in dwellings fires (1,209 or 86 %), 978 of which occurred in accidental dwelling fires. The number of non-fatal casualties (excluding precautionary check-ups) in primary fires was 1,088, a decrease of 3 persons from 2010-11. (See paragraph 6.5.2 for an explanation on the reporting of non-fatal casualties).

The provisional rate for fatal casualties was 9.2 per 1,000 accidental dwelling fires in 2011-12. This is the fourth highest rate over the reported ten year period for this publication (Chart 3). This year the rate is higher than the ten year average of 9.0. (The ten year average shows that 9 people die for every thousand accidental dwelling fires in Scotland.)

Chart 3 - Fatal casualties rate per 1,000 accidental dwelling fires, Scotland, 2002-03 to 2011-12¹

Notes

p - provisional

r - revised

1 - before 2009-10, figures for primary fires are based on sample data weighted to Fire and Rescue Service totals

2 - does not include incidents that occurred during national industrial action in November 2002, January 2003 and February 2003

4.3 False alarms (Tables 4, 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d, 5 and 5a)

In 2011-12, the total false alarms attended by the FRS in Scotland constituted 48,815 incidents. Of these 98 % were fire false alarms (47,645) and the other 2 % were special service false alarms (1,170).

A false alarm is where a FRS believes they are called to a reportable incident and there is no incident. False alarms are categorised as follows:

Malicious: are calls made with the intention of getting the FRS to attend a non-existent incident, including deliberate and suspected malicious intent.
Good Intent: are calls made in good faith in the belief that the FRS really would be attending a fire or a special service.
Due to apparatus: are calls initiated by fire alarm and/or fire-fighting equipment (including accidental initiation of alarm apparatus by persons).

Fire false alarms are at their lowest for a decade. Over this period there has been a reduction of malicious fire false alarms from 14% of all fire false alarms in 2002-03 to 5% in 2011-12. The FRS activity that may have contributed to this reduction includes the FRS challenging the caller making these type of calls, and engaging in community youth engagement, etc.

Over the ten years there has been a steady increase in the proportion of false fire alarms that have been due to apparatus. Of all false fire alarms in 2011-12, 34,764 (73 %) were due to apparatus failure. The majority of fire false alarm due to apparatus where located in other buildings (72 %), i.e. any buildings that are not dwellings.

In 2011-12 the highest proportion of false fire alarms with good intent occurred in dwellings (38 %). There were 10,270 false fire alarms with good intent, which is 22 % of all false alarms for 2011-12.

Malicious false fire alarms accounted for 5 % (2,611) of total false fire alarms. This is the lowest figure for malicious false fire alarms reported in the last decade.

Of the 1,170 special service false alarms reported in 2011-12, 5 % were considered malicious and the rest (95 %) were raised with good intent.

4.4 Special services (Tables 6, 6a, 6b, 6c and 7)

Special services are incidents that the FRS attend that are not fire related.

In 2011-12, the total number of special service incidents attended by FRSs was 10,032, a decrease of 11 % on the revised figures for 2010-11 (11,319). The highest proportion of these incidents were road traffic collisions (where a fire did not occur) at 22 % (2,205), followed by flooding at 11 % (1,116).

In just over half of all road traffic collisions in Scotland in 2011-12, the FRS attended to make the vehicle safe (1,132) and 29 % of incidents required extrication of persons from vehicles (633).

Flooding incidents in 2011-12 have decreased by over half. The most notable decrease in flooding sub-categories is in 'isolating water supply'. In 2010-11 there were 787 incidents, this year there are only 188. This may be partially explained by December 2010 being the coldest month in the UK since February 1986^[4] and an increase in bursting water pipes to which the FRS was called. Over 50 % of all Scottish flooding incidents for 2010-11 occurred within this month^[5].

Special service incidents in 2011-12 represent 11% of all incidents (91,051) that FRS attend and there are more casualties associated with them than with fires.

It should be noted that there are other statistical reports of Road Traffic Collisions (RTCs) casualties and fatalities in Scotland. The publication 'Key Reported Road Casualty Statistics Scotland' contains details provided by police forces in Scotland. In that publication, for 2011 provisionally there were 176 fatalities and 9,793 injuries (serious and slight combined)^[6] reported. Since the police can be considered to attend all RTCs and the FRSs attend only those where they are required, these police casualty figures will be higher than FRS figures. The FRSs' RTC casualty figures reported in this fire publication are a subset of the police figures and specifically represent the FRS activity.

In 2011-12, Scotland's FRS reported 212 fatal casualties and 2,459 non-fatal casualties from special service incidents. The highest percentages of these were in RTCs where there were 47% of fatal casualties and 72% of non-fatal casualties.

4.5 Building fires (Tables 8 and 8a)

In 2011-12, the total of 8,874 building fires were recorded in Scotland, this is a decrease of 3 % from 2010-11 (9,138 building fires). This is the lowest value for over a decade, 69 % of building fires occurred in dwellings.

The 'Other building' sub-categories have changed since 2008-09 and reporting is now on these new categories. Of the 2,725 'Other buildings' fires, 19 %, were 'Other residential', 16 % were 'Private garages, sheds, etc' and 11 % were 'Industrial'.

4.6 Outdoor fires (Tables 9 and 9a)

Primary outdoor fires have decreased by 13 % for 2011-12 (3,526) compared to 2010-11 (4,060). For the last ten years, road vehicle fires have represented the largest proportion of fires in this category, accounting for 67 % of all primary outdoor fires in 2011-12. Of the 2,358 vehicle fires in 2011-12, 53 % occurred in cars (not abandoned), 17 % occurred in abandoned vehicles and the rest occurred in other types of road vehicles (non-cars) (31 %).

The number of secondary outdoor fires for 2011-12 has decreased by 23 % from 24,207 in 2010-11 to 18,610 in 2011-12. The most common category in secondary outdoor fires was refuse fires. The trend data has been affected by changes in the recording system: previously there were only 6 sub-categories of secondary fires and now there are over 100 (see paragraph 6.5.3). This has led to a reduction in the reporting of refuse fires as they are now spread amongst the new classifications, although refuse fires still account for 53 % of all outdoor secondary fires in 2011-12.

The number of refuse fires in 2011-12 was 9,928, a decrease of 10 % from 2010-11 (11,070). Of these refuse fires, those with loose refuse and rubbish tip fires accounted for 48 %, whereas small /rubbish container fires (e.g. wheelie bins) accounted for 45% and 7 % were large rubbish containers (e.g. skips).

Between 2010-11 and 2011-12, secondary fires decreased by 5,597. Grassland fires accounted for 62 % of this decrease (3,469). Grassland fires tend to occur more often in March, April and May in Scotland. In 2010-11, there was an exceptionally warm and dry spring across the UK^[7], which would partially explain the higher number of grassland fires in 2010-11. The return to more normal weather conditions in 2011-12 has been reflected in grassland fires for this year. Chart 4 shows grassland fires by month over the last 3 years. (This has been taken from additional datasets provided along with this publication:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Datasets/DatasetsFire).

Chart 4 - Grassland fires, Scotland - 2009-10 to 2011-12^p

4.7 Fire casualty numbers and rates (Tables 10, 10a, 10b, 11, 11a, 12, 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d, 13,13a, 13b, 13c, 13d, 14, 14a, 14b, 14c, 14d, 15, 15a, 15b, 15c and 15d)

At the time of creating this publication the mid-year population figures for 2011 for England and Wales were not available and comparison can only be made on 2010-11 figures.

In 2010-11, the rate of fire fatal casualties per million population in Scotland was 10.0; this was greater than England and Wales (6.3 and 6.7 respectively). Over the last ten years Scotland has continually had a higher rate per million population than the rest of Great Britain (Chart 5).

Chart 5 - Rate of fatal casualties per million population - Great Britain- 2002-03 to 2010-11

This trend can also be found in the non-fatal casualties rates. In 2010-11, the rate per million population for Scotland was 254.3, whereas in Wales it was 201.9 and in England it was 179.9. Scotland has had a consistently higher rate than England and Wales over the last ten years, even taking into account the change in reporting of non-fatal casualties from 2009-10 (see section 6.5.2 ii for more details).

In 2011-12, the provisional figure for fatal casualties in fires was 57. The fatal casualty rate per million population for Scotland in 2011-12 was 10.8 .This is the third lowest rate in the last ten years. In 2011-12, 38 males died in fires compared to 19 females. The 2011-12 rate of fatal casualties per million population for males was 14.9 whereas females was 7.0. Chart 6 (fatal casualties) showing that males are more likely to die in a fire than females and the 2011-12 figures are consistent with the trend over the last decade.

Chart 6 - Non-FRS personnel fire casualty rates per million population from primary fires - by gender, Scotland, 2002-03 to 2011-12^p

Fatal Casualties¹

Non-fatal Casualties^1,2

Notes for Chart 6

p - provisional

r - revised

1 - refers to persons who are not members of the fire and rescue service

2- there has been a change in the recording of non-fatal casualties and 2009-10 and beyond can no longer be compared to previous years - see paragraph 6.5.2 ii

In 2011-12, there were provisionally 1,398 non-fatal casualties in primary fires. The non-fatal casualty rate was 266.0 casualties per million population for Scotland. If the 28 FRS personnel non-fatal casualties are removed from this figure, the number for members of public (non-FRS) who were non-fatal casualties was 1,370 and the casualty rate for Scotland is 260.7 casualties per million population.

In 2011-12, there were 706 males who were non-fatal fire casualties compared with 643 females (this excludes FRS personnel figures and where gender was unknown). Males are more likely than females to be injured in a fire and this has been a consistent trend over the last decade. The rate of non-fatal casualties per million population for males was 277.1, whereas females were 237.6. (Chart 6- non-fatal casualties).

There were 22 fatal casualties (39 %) in 2011-12 who were 'overcome by smoke, gas or fumes'. Similarly, this was the highest category for (non-FRS) non-fatal casualties at 39 % (538), followed by precautionary check ups at 22 % (307). Of these non-fatal casualties, 496 members of the public were sent to hospital with slight injuries (36 %), 489 were given first aid at the scene (36 %), 307 were recommended precautionary checks (22 %) and 78 went to hospital with serious injuries (6 %).

Of the 57 fatal casualties in 2011-12, there were 27 in the over 60s age group, followed by 24 in the 30-59 year age group. The rate of fatal casualties was 22.1 per million population in the over 60s age group, just over double the Scottish rate of 10.8, whereas the 30-59 age group was 11.3. Throughout the last ten years the over 60s age group has always had the highest rate of fatal casualties per million population. (Chart 7 - fatal casualties)

In 2011-12, the 30-59 year olds age range had the highest number of (this excludes FRS personnel figures and where age was unknown) non-fatal casualties with 639 ( 47 %), followed by the 60 and over age group with 350 (26 %). The age range of 30-59 year olds has the highest rate of non-fatal casualties at 299.6 casualties per million population.(Chart 7 - non-fatal casualties). Over the ten years this was the first time that 17-29 age range is not the highest non-fatal casualties rate per million population, in the 3 years since IRS all age groups apart from 0-16 are beginning to converge.

Chart 7 - Non-FRS personnel fire casualty rates per million population from primary fires - by age range, Scotland, 2002-03 to 2011-12^p

Fatal Casualties¹

Non-Fatal Casualties^1,2

p - provisional

r - revised

1 - refers to persons who are not members of the fire and rescue service

2 - there has been a change in the recording of non-fatal casualties and 2009-10 and beyond can no longer be compared to previous years - see paragraph 6.5.2 ii

4.8 Rescues from fires (Tables 16, 16a and 16b)

The majority of rescues from fires are performed by FRS personnel, but sometimes other people can be involved in making the rescues. In 2011-12, there were a total of 860 rescues, 53 % of rescues involved a person who was a casualty and 47 % involved a person who rescued but not injured.

The largest number of rescues involved persons who were in the age group of 30-59 years old (45 %) followed by the over 60 age group (27 %).

The rate of rescues per million population for 2011-12, show almost all age groups lying between the range of 181 and 192 rescues per million population. The exception to this is the 0-16 years age group, with a lower rate of 71.9 rescues per million population.

4.9 Deliberate and accidental fires (Tables 17, 18, 19 and 19a)

In 2011-12, there were 8,640 primary fires reported as accidental compared to 3,760 that were considered deliberate: 70 % and 30 % respectively. For 2011-12, the most common location for an accidental fire was in a dwelling (59 %), whereas the most common location for a deliberate fire was a road vehicle (29 %). Accidental dwelling fires for 2011-12 are at their lowest level in the last ten years at 5,116.

There were provisionally 53 fatal casualties in accidental primary fires and 4 in deliberate primary fires in 2011-12. In accidental fires most fatal casualties occurred in dwellings (47) and in deliberate fires all 4 were in dwellings. Fatal casualties from accidental primary fires are at their fourth lowest value in ten years and fatal casualties from deliberate primary fire are at their joint lowest value in the last ten years (there was also 4 fatal casualties from deliberate fires in 2010-11).

There were provisionally 1,126 non-fatal casualties in accidental primary fires and 272 in deliberate primary fires in 2011-12. Again the majority of non-fatal casualties occurred in dwellings, 978 in accidental dwelling fires (87 %) and 231 in deliberate dwelling fires (85 %).

More secondary fires are deliberate (87 %) than primary fires (30 %). In 2011-12, there were 16,188 deliberate secondary fires compared to 2,422 accidental secondary fires. The majority of deliberate secondary fires involved refuse (55 %), followed by grassland (26 %). Within accidental secondary fires, grassland and refuse were the most common types of fire, 42 % and 39 % respectively.

4.10 Smoke alarms (Tables 20 and 20a)

The presence of smoke alarms has always been reported in FDR1 data, but with the introduction of IRS a new category has been included i.e. 'Don't know if smoke alarm was present' (see paragraph 6.5.3) - thus affecting the comparability of these statistics prior to 2009-10.

For 2011-12, there were 2,079 dwelling fires (34 %) where a smoke alarm was absent and there were 123 dwelling fires (2 %) where it was not known if a smoke alarm was present.

In 43 % of primary dwelling fires in 2011-12 there was a smoke alarm present, that operated and raised the alarm. (Chart 8)

In 2011-12, 10 of the provisional fatal casualties occurred in dwelling fires where there were no smoke alarms (20 %). For the provisional non-fatal casualties, 376 were in a dwelling fire where no smoke alarm was present (31 %).

Chart 8 - Primary fires in dwellings by smoke alarm presence and operation, Scotland - 2011-12^p

Notes

1 - there has been a change in the recording of smoke alarms - see paragraph 6.5.3 iv for details

4.11 Causes of fires (Tables 21, 21a, 22, 23, 23a and 23b)

In 2011-12, the most common cause of dwelling fires was 'Misuse of equipment or appliances' (41 %, 2,510 dwelling fires) followed by 'Deliberate fires' (17 %, 1,033 dwelling fires) and then 'Careless handing of fire or hot substances', (9%, 553 dwelling fires). Deliberate dwelling fires were at a ten year low in 2011-12 (Chart 9).

For 2011-12, most common cause of fires in 'Other buildings' was 'Deliberate' at 31%, followed by faulty appliances and leads at 16 %

Chart 9 - Main causes of fires in dwellings (excluding 'others' as a cause), 2002-03 to 2011-12^p, Scotland ^1,3

Notes

p - provisional

r - revised

1 - before 2009-10, figures for primary fires are based on sample data weighted to Fire and Rescue Service totals

2 - does not include incidents that occurred during national industrial action in November 2002, January 2003 and February 2003

3 - Under IRS, the category for "Misuse of equipment or appliances" includes incidents which have been recorded as "Other cooking" (a new category introduced with IRS). It is believed that the majority of these incidents were previously recorded as the misuse of cooking appliances under the FDR1 collection

In 2011-12, 30 % of fatal casualties occurred in accidental dwelling fires which arose due to careless handling of fire and hot substances (14 of 47 fatal casualties), whereas smoker's material and matches were the main source of ignition in 45 % (21 of 47 of fatal casualties).

The main cause of fires where non-fatal casualties occurred in accidental dwelling fires was misuse of equipment or appliances (35 %), whereas cooking appliances accounted for 58 % (567) of the main source of ignition in accidental fires where a non-fatal casualty occurred.

With the introduction of IRS in 2009, FRSs started to record where there was the suspected influence of alcohol/drugs involved in a fire. In 2011-12 there were 860 (17%) accidental dwelling fires where impairment due to suspected alcohol and /or drugs use was a contributory factor to the fire. This was an increase of 3 % on last year's figure of 835.

It should be noted that if a fire is suspected to have been influenced by impairment due to alcohol and/or drugs, this does not imply that all casualties were under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.

In these type of accidental dwelling fires, in 2011-12, there were 14 fatal casualties and 292 non-fatal casualties .These figures increased from 2010-11, where there were 11 fatal casualties and 263 non-fatal casualties.

4.12 Spread of fire and number of appliances attending fires (Tables 24, 25 and 25a)

With changes to recording through the IRS system, a new category 'smoke and/or heat damage only' has been included in spread of fire (see paragraph 6.5.3 vi for details), which has affected the long term trend data. For 2011-12, 42 % (2,553) of fires in dwellings were reported with smoke and heat damage only. Of the 58 % of incidents in dwellings where flames were reported (3,596), most of the fires were 'confined to the item first ignited' (45 %).

In 2011-12, the majority of primary fires were attended by no more than 2 appliances (77 %). There were 169 primary fires in Scotland that required more than 5 appliances which accounts for 1 % of all primary fires.

The majority of secondary fires in 2011-12 were attended by one appliance (84%). The majority of secondary fires were outdoor refuse fires.

4.13 Time of call to fires (Tables 26, 26a and 27)

For 2011-12 the number of call outs to primary fires generally peaked between mid-afternoon and late evening (4 pm to 10 pm) at over 700 incidents an hour. Scotland's busiest hour for call outs to primary fires was 7 pm to 7:59 pm. (841 or 7 %).

Call outs to dwelling fires peaked between 4 pm and 9 pm in 2011-12. Other building fires were more likely to occur between 5 pm and 8 pm, whereas primary outdoor fires generally occurred between 7 pm and 1 am. (Chart 10)

The rate of non-fatal casualties per 1,000 dwelling fires was at it lowest between 10 am to 3 pm, whereas the rate of fatal casualties per 1,000 dwelling fires was over 20 at 2 am, 5 am and 7 am. (Chart 11)

The numbers of dwelling fires were greater between mid-afternoon and late evening but the rate of casualties per 1,000 dwelling fires increased between late afternoon and mid-morning.

Chart 10 - Primary fires by location and time of call, Scotland, 2011-12^p

Chart 11 - Rate of fatal and non-fatal casualties per 1,000 primary dwelling fires by time of call Scotland, 2011-12 ^p