Number of fires down but chance of injuries increases

Published on Monday 31 August 2009 09:59

THE number of fires in Lothian and Borders has fallen by 11 per cent – but the chance of being injured in a blaze in this area is twice as high as in England.

New statistics show there were at total of 8,147 fires in the Lothians in 2007, down from 9,187 the previous year. There were seven deaths – one fewer than in 2006. But the number of people injured in fires rose from 314 to 364.

Scotland has a higher rate of both fatal and non-fatal fire casualties per million population than any other part of the United Kingdom.

And the Lothians had the second highest rate in Scotland for non-fatal casualties – 395 per million population, well above the Scottish average of 333 per million and almost double the English average of 200 per million.

Despite a drop in the number of house fires in the area from 1,376 to 1,338, non-fatal casualties in such fires rose from 261 to 327.

Lothian & Borders chief fire officer Brian Allaway said in the year ending 31 March 2009, the area had seen five fatalities, the lowest number of deaths from fires in a home ever recorded.

He said: "Whilst we welcome the reduction we are always conscious that every fire death is a tragedy for the families involved. This is why we continue to work hard at reducing these figures.

"We encourage people to have a home safety visit from the service and get a smoke alarm fitted. Already more than 81,000 people in the Lothian and Borders area have benefited from this service, making their homes and families safer in the process."

The statistics also show there were 1,123 deliberate fires in Lothian & Borders in 2007 – down slightly on the previous year – which led to one fatality and 83 non-fatal casualties.

Lothian & Borders Fire Service rescued more people from dwelling fires in 2007 – 186 compared with 154 the previous year.

Smoke detectors raised the alarm in 426 domestic fires, fewer than a third of the total and down from 518 the previous year. In another 106 fires, a smoke detector was present and operated but did not raise the alarm; in 239 fires, a detector was present but did not operate; and in 566 fires there was no smoke detector.

False alarms were up slightly to 11,063 in 2007 – 58 per cent of all calls. Most were due to apparatus, but the number of malicious false alarms rose from 897 to 1,001.

Across Scotland, there were 45,912 fires, nine per cent down on the 50,520 recorded in 2006, but fatal casualties were up from 52 to 59, a13 per cent increase, and non-fatal casualties totalled 1,722, up five per cent from 2006.