The Scottish Government

This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007

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Fire Statistics Scotland 2003

10/03/2005

There was a 47 per cent increase in grassland fires caused by the hot summer in 2003 according to statistics published today.

The latest fire statistical bulletin shows that total fires (primary, secondary and chimney fires) increased by 25 per cent between 2002 and 2003, reaching 65,600. Secondary fires accounted for 69 per cent of all fires in 2003, compared with 59 per cent in 2002.

In contrast, primary fires (usually the most serious fires) fell by 6 per cent in 2003 to stand at 18,000. In 2003 primary fires accounted for 27 per cent of all fires, compared with 36 per cent in 2002.

The statistics cover the period January 1 to December 31, 2003 and provide a detailed report of fire statistics from that period.

Other main findings include:

• Since 1994 the majority of fatal casualties have occurred in house fires where there was either no smoke detector or the smoke detector failed to operate.
• Almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of primary fires were in buildings, 28 per cent were road vehicle fires and the remaining primary fires were other outdoor fires.
• Chimney fires fell by 12 per cent between 2002 and 2003 to 2,200 (3 per cent of all fires compared with 5 per cent in 2002).
• There were 7,896 deliberate primary fires in 2003, representing 44 per cent of total primary - down from a 10 year high of 46 per cent in 2002. The pattern of accidental fires causing significantly more fatal and non-fatal casualties than deliberate fires has held throughout the past decade.
• In 2003 there were 52,900 false alarms, representing 45 per cent of all call outs.
• An increase of 3 in the number of fatal casualties meant that rates of death from fire increased slightly from 15 to 16 per million population, compared to 9 per million in England, 10 per million in Wales and 8 per million in Northern Ireland. Rates of non-fatal casualties decreased from 391 to 364 per million population.
• Rates of fire deaths per 1,000 home fires were similar to those elsewhere in the UK. This suggests that the reason for Scotland's higher fatality rate per million population is due to a higher risk of fires in the home rather than a greater likelihood of deaths in such fires.
• The number of non-fatal casualties in 2003 was 1880, a decrease of 8 per cent per cent compared with 2002.

This is the fourth Scottish Executive fire statistics bulletin and is based on information from the country's eight fire brigades. This bulletin is intended to provide a detailed overview of Scottish fire statistics during the past decade, at brigade and national level, compared to other areas of the UK.

These statistics run on a calendar year basis from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2003 unlike the Chief Inspector of Fire Services Inspectorate's annual report which is compiled on a financial year basis. The latest Chief Inspector's report can be found here http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2004/12/17093546

Due to industrial action in January and February 2003, the reporting of fires for these days was disrupted. In total, 5 24-hour periods were affected. Some information relating to this period has been received via data collected by the Ministry of Defence and from special summary reports submitted by some brigades. In order to present the most accurate picture of the fires, casualties and false alarms which occurred in 2003, estimates have been incorporated in this publication to account for the missing information in January and February.

Location is a term used in the bulletin to denote a combination of the type of fire ("primary", "secondary" and "chimney") and the type of place where the fire started.

Primary fires: If a fire involves a casualty or rescue, or is attended by five or more appliances then it is classed as a primary fire, regardless of its actual location. A fire may also be classed as primary if it occurs in any of the following - buildings (not derelict, not under demolition); caravans; vehicles and other methods or transport (not derelict); outdoor storage, plant and machinery or agricultural or forestry premises and property.

Secondary fires: These involve no casualties or rescues and are attended by four or fewer appliances. A fire is also not classed as secondary if it is a chimney fire (defined below).

Chimney fires: These always involve no casualties or rescues, and are attended by four or fewer fire engines. They only occur in occupied buildings where the fire was contained within the chimney structure.

This is a Scottish Executive National Statistics publication. National statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs. They are produced free from any political interference.