Fire Statistics, 2009-10 and 2010-11

Statistics on fire incidents include data for Wales for the period up to the end of March 2011. This is the first bulletin containing financial year. The last bulletin (relating to calendar year data) was published on 30 June 2010.

The Welsh 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 2008-09 to 2010-11 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.

The key points from the latest release are:

Fires:

• The Welsh Fire and Rescue Services attended around 36,100 fires and false alarms in 2009-10, a decrease of 6 per cent on the 2008-09 figure. Provisional figures for 2010-11 show a 3 per cent increase to 37,300 attendances at fires and false alarms.
• The number of primary fires in Wales decreased by 3* per cent over the year from 7,000 in 2008-09 to 6,800 in 2009-10. A further decrease of 8 per cent was seen in 2010-11.

Casualties:

• There were 23 fatal casualties from fires in Wales in 2009-10 compared with 17 in 2008-09. In 2010-11 there were 20 fatalities.
• The number of non-fatal casualties from fires was 575 in 2009-10 and rising to 580 in 2010-11.

False Alarms:

• In 2009-10 there were 16,900 false fire alarms in Wales, down from 18,900 in 2008-09. The number of false alarms in 2010-11 stayed at around 16,900.
• The number of malicious false fire alarms decreased 36 per cent between 2008 09 and 2009-10. By 2010-11 there was a further decrease of 15 per cent to 760.
  
  Smoke Alarms:
• In 41 per cent of the 2,200 fires in dwellings in Wales in 2009-10, no smoke alarm was installed. This proportion fell to 36 per cent of the 2,000 dwelling fires in 2010-11.

*amended 29 July 2011

Further information

StatsWales website.

Contact

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

Next update

July 2012 (provisional - to be confirmed on the Due Out Soon page)