Fire Statistics, 2008

Statistics on fire incidents include data for Wales for the period up to the end of December 2008. The latest release updates the statistics previously released on 16 June 2009.

The Welsh Assembly Government compiles these statistics from reports on all fires attended submitted by all Fire and Rescue Services in Wales to the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG).

The bulletin covers the period 1994-2008 and provides the latest annual in-depth analysis of fire incidents attended by Welsh Fire and Rescue Services. Analysis includes details on location, cause, motive, casualties and false alarms attended.

Fires:

• The Welsh Fire and Rescue Services attended around 38,100(r) fires and false alarms in 2008, a decrease of 15 per cent on 2007.
• The number of primary fires in Wales decreased by 9 per cent over the year from 7,800 in 2007 to 7,200(r) in 2008.

Casualties:

• There were 20(r) fatal casualties from fires in Wales in 2008 compared with 26 in 2007.
• The number of non-fatal casualties from fires was 648, the same number as in 2007.

False Alarms:

• In 2008 there were 18,800 false fire alarms in Wales, down from 19,600 in 2007.
• Overall the number of malicious false fire alarms has decreased 4 per cent since 2007 to 1,460 in 2008.

Smoke Alarms:

• In 38 per cent of the 2,300 fires in dwellings in Wales, no smoke alarm was installed.

Cause of Fires:

• In 2008 most accidental fires were caused by misuse of equipment or appliances or faulty fuel supplies.

(r) Revised on 19 April 2010.

Revision note

The figures for primary fires in 2008 have been revised due to a change in the weighting used. Consequently data for ‘all fires’ has also been revised. The number of fatalities has been revised due to one fatality being absent from the original dataset. Data were revised on 19 April 2011.

Further information

StatsWales website.

Contact

Tel: 029 2082 6699
E-mail: stats.inclusion@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Next update

April 2011 (provisional - to be confirmed on 'Due out Soon' page)