Accredited official statistics
Fire statistics Great Britain 2010 to 2011
Annual statistics on fires, casualties and false alarms attended by fire and rescue services across Great Britain.
Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
Documents
Details
These latest national statistics and analysis in detail on fires, casualties, and false alarms attended by the fire and rescue services in the UK were released on Friday 25 November 2011 under the auspices of the UK Statistics Authority.
Main points include:
- smokers’ materials, predominantly cigarettes, were the source of ignition in the fires that accounted for 96 of the 268 fatalities in accidental dwelling fires in 2010 to 2011
- smoke alarms were absent from the fire area in 37% of dwelling fires (16,400 fires); of the total of 306 dwelling fires fatalities in the Great Britain in 2010 to 2011, 112 (37%) of these fatalities were in fires where there was no smoke alarm present, and a further 76 fatalities (25%) where a smoke alarm was present but did not operate
- the proportion of households with a working smoke alarm increased rapidly from 8% in 1988 to 70% in 1994, and has continued to rise in recent years to 86% in 2008
- more than half (51%) of accidental fires in homes arose from cooking; other common sources of ignition were:
- electrical appliances (12%)
- electrical distribution (10%)
- smokers’ materials (7%)
- space heating appliances (4%)