What to do the 2019 fire statistics reveal?

The Home Office has recently released the statistics relating to fire incidents in 2019, which has some positive trends.

In 2019 the Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) in England attended 555,759 incidents, which was a 4% decrease over 2018.

Within this figure 41% were false alarms, 30% non-fire incidents and 28% fires. With regard to fire incidents there was a 12% fall from 2018.

While in the first decade of this century there was a significant fall in the number of fires, the last decade has seen numbers staying stubbornly constant.

There were 237 fire-related fatalities in 2019 compared with 262 in 2018, a decrease of 10%.

Fire-related fatalities have been on a downward trend since 1981/82, although in recent years the numbers have plateaued.

It is of note that only a very small proportion of fires resulted in a fatality: 224 out of the 68,871 primary fires (0.33%).

There were also 7,021 non-fatal casualties, virtually unchanged compared with 7,025 in 2018, although only 3,026 required hospital treatment.