Fire Statistics Scotland 2012-13

2. Main Points

2012-13 Provisional Data

• In 2012-13, the total number of fires in Scotland was 26,613. This was 18 % lower than in 2011-12 (32,336). Primary fires accounted for 42% (11,045) of the total number of fires, 53 % (14,196) were secondary fires and 5 % (1,372) were chimney fires (Table 1).
• The number of primary fires in 2012-13 decreased by 11 % from 2011-12 (from 12,417 to 11,045). There was a 24 % reduction in the number of secondary fires in 2012-13 compared to 2011-12 (Table 1).
• More than half of primary fires in 2012-13 were in dwellings (5,820). Of these fires, 4,994 were accidental (86 %) (Tables 1 & 3).
• Provisionally, there were 46 fatal fire casualties in 2012-13 - a decrease of 14 (23 %) on the revised figure of 60 for 2011-12. This is the joint lowest figure in ten years (Table 2).
• In 2012-13, Scotland had 8.7 fatal casualties per million population. Even though this rate has decreased by about a half in the last ten years, Scotland still has a higher rate than England and Wales (5.1 and 5.5 per million population respectively) (Table 10).
• There were as many male as female fatal fire casualties (23 fatal casualties per gender) in 2012-13 and 35 % of all fatal casualties were 'overcome by smoke, gas or fumes' (Table 12b).
• Provisionally, there were 41 fatal casualties in dwelling fires in 2012-13 and 37 of these occurred in accidental dwelling fires. (Tables 2 & 3 )
• The most common source of ignition for accidental dwelling fires where a fatality occurred was 'smokers' materials and matches' which accounted for 17 (46 %) fatal casualties. (Tables 23).
• Provisionally there were 1,311 non-fatal fire casualties in 2012-13. The main injury was due to being 'overcome by smoke, gas or fumes' (524 non-fatal casualties, 40 %). Of the 1,311 non-fatal casualties, 1,014 occurred in accidental dwelling fires. The most common source of ignition for accidental dwelling fires when a non-fatal casualty occurred was cooking appliances, which accounted for 600 non-fatal casualties (59 %) (Tables 2, 3, 12c & 23 ).
• In 2012-13, the number of accidental dwelling fires was at a ten year low of 4,994. In 16 % of these accidental dwelling fires (775), impairment due to suspected alcohol and/or drugs use was a contributory factor. From accidental dwelling fires, there were provisionally 10 fatal casualties and 277 non-fatal casualties where impairment due to suspected alcohol and/or drugs use was a contributory factor to the fire (27 %, 27 % respectively). (Tables 3, 24 & 24b).
• In 2012-13, there were provisionally 13 fatal casualties (32 %) and 305 non-fatal casualties (26 %) in dwelling fires where a smoke alarm was absent (Table 20)
• In 2012-13 Scotland's Fire and Rescue Services attended 9,130 special service incidents (non-fire related incidents). Road traffic collisions (RTCs) were the type of special service incident most often attended (25 %) (Table 6).
• The number of false fire alarms attended was 47,043 in 2012-13, 74 % of these were due to failure of apparatus and the majority of them occurred in other buildings (i.e. not dwellings). There were 635 special service false alarms in 2012-13 (Tables 4, 4c & 5)
• There were 15,061 deliberate primary and secondary fires in 2012-13 (60 % of all primary and secondary fires). The majority of deliberate fires were secondary fires (12,238 or 81 %) (Tables 17 &19).