Scary Facts About UK Fires
Every year hundreds of people die from the effects of fire in the UK. The good news is the figures seem to be dropping on a yearly basis. The bad news is there were still 322 fire-related deaths during 2013 – 2014. Sadly, in the vast majority of these cases, the victims could have been saved had they installed fire sprinkler systems in their homes
Without wanting to scare the living daylights out of you, we thought we’d look at a few fire facts provided by the Department for Communities and Local Government. These statistics make a sombre read.
From April 2013 – March 2014
- Crews in the UK attended 212,500 fires. Overall this was a down on a ten-year trend but it was slightly higher than the figures from the previous year, which proved to be one of the wettest for a long time.
- Homes with no smoke alarms accounted for 38% of fire-related deaths. One in five deaths occurred where a smoke alarm wasn’t working.
- The most common time for fires to occur was between 8pm and 9pm. This, not so golden hour accounted for 9% of all fires, whilst 11% of fires occurred between midnight and 5am, causing one-fifth of all deaths in GB during 2013 and 2014.
- Two-thirds of deaths caused by fire were accidental and they started in domestic abodes. Over half of the victims in these cases were over the age of 65.
- Over a third of fires in non-domestic buildings were caused by discarded smokers’ materials or attributed to cigarette lighters.
- Compared to England and Wales, Scotland had the highest number of recorded fire deaths in 2013 – 2014 and this continued a worrying trend. However, the figures did show there had been a drop in reported fire death cases, down a third from the previous year, compared to the 2012 – 2013 figures.
These statistics do offer a little encouragement. They show that although there are still hundreds of people dying in fires in the UK each year, the figures are dropping slightly which has got to be good news. Maybe the message about fire fighting systems is finally getting through and a growing number of homes are now installing fire sprinklers.
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