Fire Service Deaths

HC Deb 05 March 2003 vol 400 cc1001-5W

Mr. Weir

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many(a) deaths in incidents attended by firefighters at night and (b) deaths in incidents attended by firefighters during day shift hours there were in each fire brigade area in the last year for which figures are available. [100123]

Mr. Raynsford

The latest data available are tabled as follows. These show fires and deaths occurring in fires attended by local authority fire brigades between the following time periods; (i) 9 am and 5.59 pm (i.e. the

Deaths in primary fires1 by brigade and time of day, UK, 2001–022
	Total	09:00–17:59		18:00–23:59
Brigade	Fires	Deaths	Fires	Deaths	Rate per 1,000 fires	Fires	Deaths	Rate per 1,000 fires
United Kingdom	228,087	635	79,207	227	2.9	89,662	154	1.7
(Estimates are shown in brackets)3			(614)
England and Wales	201,433	520	70,157	191	2.7	79,888	125	1.6
(Estimates are shown in brackets)3			(498)
England	188,701	481	65,749	179	2.7	74,843	117	1.6
England-Non-Met Counties	105,588	276	37,792	108	2.9	40,959	69	1.7
Avon	4,883	7	1,414	1	0.7	2,032	1	0.5
Bedfordshire4	2,045	5	603	1	1.7	797	3	3.8
Berkshire	2,649	5	947	2	2.1	902	3	3.3
Buckinghamshire	2,729	8	1,021	3	2.9	1,063	4	3.8
Cambridgeshire	2,373	4	808	2	2.5	879	1	1.1
Cheshire	3,403	6	1,243	4	3.2	1,230	0	0.0
Cleveland	3,600	7	1,269	4	3.2	1,573	0	0.0
Cornwall	1,472	7	647	2	3.1	447	2	4.5
Cumbria	1,666	4	683	2	2.9	585	1	1.7
Derbyshire	2,832	10	992	4	4.0	1,139	4	3.5
Devon	3,329	7	1,455	2	1.4	1,105	2	1.8
Dorset	1,950	8	693	5	7.2	742	1	1.3
Durham	2,398	6	841	0	0.0	1,014	4	3.9
East Sussex	2,822	7	1,054	1	0.9	1,038	5	4.8
Essex	4,597	10	1,632	6	3.7	1,774	1	0.6
Gloucestershire	1,720	6	658	2	3.0	621	1	1.6
Hampshire	4,344	14	1,795	8	4.5	1,584	3	1.9
Hereford and Worcester	2,083	4	843	3	3.6	791	0	0.0
Hertfordshire	2,826	9	1,023	6	5.9	1,126	3	2.7
Humberside	3,846	7	1,295	5	3.9	1,588	0	0.0
Isle of Wight	406	0	186	0	0.0	147	0	0.0
Kent	5,152	21	1,766	6	3.4	2,094	4	1.9
Lancashire	5,801	18	2,133	7	3.3	2,176	3	1.4
Leicestershire	3,254	14	1,121	8	7.1	1,319	3	2.3

total number of council house sales in the United Kingdom in each year since 1997 is currently incomplete.

Sales of council dwellings in south Tyneside, Tyne and Wear and Great Britain: 1997–98 to 2001–02

standard day shift), (ii) between 6 pm and 23.59 pm and (iii) between midnight and 8.59am. The "night" period has been split into more comparable time intervals rather than one 15 hour duration.

The time of the fire is defined as the time at which the emergency call was received by the local authority fire brigade and may differ in some circumstances from the time at which the fire actually started.

Information on deaths occurring in other incidents attended by fire crews (such as road traffic accidents) is not available by time of incident.

Deaths in primary fires1 by brigade and time of day, UK, 2001–022
	Total	09:00–17:59		18:00–23:59
Brigade	Fires	Deaths	Fires	Deaths	Rate per 1,000 fires	Fires	Deaths	Rate per 1,000 fires
Lincolnshire	1,861	5	679	3	4.4	793	0	0.0
Norfolk	2,282	8	816	2	2.5	845	3	3.6
North Yorkshire	2,088	2	703	0	0.0	876	0	0.0
Northamptonshire	2,663	4	903	2	2.2	1,058	0	0.0
Northumberland	1,205	2	374	1	2.7	522	1	1.9
Nottinghamshire	5,503	9	1,638	3	1.8	2,521	1	0.4
Oxfordshire	1,885	5	751	3	4.0	637	2	3.1
Shropshire	1,604	4	594	2	3.4	657	1	1.5
Somerset	1,787	10	676	3	4.4	606	1	1.7
Staffordshire	3,217	9	1,068	1	0.9	1,326	3	2.3
Suffolk	1,642	4	554	0	0.0	653	0	0.0
Surrey	2,447	3	969	0	0.0	866	1	1.2
Warwickshire	1,534	8	505	2	4.0	602	3	5.0
West Sussex	2,214	4	805	1	1.2	741	2	2.7
Wiltshire	1,474	5	632	1	1.6	492	2	4.1
Isles of Scilly	1	0	1	0	0.0	0	0	—
England-Met Counties	83,113	205	27,957	71	2.5	33,884	48	1.4
Greater Manchester	16,309	37	5,251	17	3.2	6,736	9	1.3
Merseyside	8,334	17	2,833	3	1.1	3,591	4	1.1
South	5,548	21	1,590	8	5.0	2,389	6	2.5
Yorkshire
Tyne and Wear	6,518	7	2,293	2	0.9	2,684	0	0.0
West Midlands	12,862	37	4,372	14	3.2	5,391	12	2.2
West Yorkshire	11,641	16	3,308	6	1.8	5,109	4	0.8
Greater London	21,901	70	8,310	21	2.5	7,983	13	1.6
Wales	12,732	39	4,408	12	2.7	5,045	8	1.6
North Wales	2,362	17	844	7	8.3	824	4	4.9
Mid and West Wales	3,947	13	1,521	4	2.6	1,539	1	0.6
South Wales	6,423	9	2,043	1	0.5	2,682	3	1.1
Northern Ireland	6,991	19	1,957	7	3.6	2,318	2	0.9
Scotland	19,663	96	7,093	29	4.1	7,456	27	3.6
Strathclyde	9,522	40	3,211	10	3.1	3,704	15	4.0
Highland and Islands	665	4	293	1	3.4	180	2	11.1
Grampian	1,664	16	625	6	9.6	565	7	12.4
Tayside	1,599	10	604	1	1.7	658	0	0.0
Lothian and Borders	3,731	14	1,350	4	3.0	1,456	2	1.4
Fife	1,229	5	478	3	6.3	430	1	2.3
Central	886	5	376	2	5.3	339	0	0.0
Dumfries	368	2	155	2	12.9	126	0	0.0

	00:00–08:59		Tune of incident unknown
Brigade	Fires	Deaths	Rate per 1,000 fires	Fires	Deaths
United Kingdom	59,191	252	4.3	27	2
(Estimates are shown in brackets)3
England and Wales	51,367	202	3.9	22	2
(Estimates are shown in brackets)3
England	48,088	183	3.8	22	2
England-Non-Met Counties	26,826	97	3.6	11	2
Avon	1,438	5	3.5	0	0
Bedfordshire4	645	1	1.6	0	0
Berkshire	800	0	0.0	0	0
Buckinghamshire	644	1	1.6	0	0
Cambridgeshire	685	1	1.5	0	0
Cheshire	930	2	2.2	0	0
Cleveland	758	3	4.0	0	0
Cornwall	377	3	8.0	0	0
Cumbria	398	1	2.5	0	0
Derbyshire	701	2	2.9	0	0
Devon	770	3	3.9	0	0
Dorset	516	2	3.9	0	0
Durham	543	2	3.7	0	0
East Sussex	725	1	1.4	5	0
Essex	1,192	3	2.5	0	0
Gloucestershire	440	3	6.8	0	0
Hampshire	965	3	3.1	0	0

	00:00–08:59		Time of incident unknown
Brigade	Fires	Deaths	Rate per 1,000 fires	Fires	Deaths
Hereford and Worcester	450	1	2.2	0	0
Hertfordshire	676	0	0.0	0	0
Humberside	963	2	2.1	0	0
Isle of Wight	73	0	0.0	0	0
Kent	1,292	11	8.5	0	0
Lancashire	1,493	8	5.4	0	0
Leicestershire	814	3	3.7	0	0
Lincolnshire	389	2	5.1	0	0
Norfolk	621	3	4.8	0	0
North Yorkshire	508	2	3.9	0	0
Northamptonshire	703	2	2.8	0	0
Northumberland	309	0	0.0	0	0
Nottinghamshire	1,344	5	3.7	0	0
Oxfordshire	497	0	0.0	0	0
Shropshire	353	1	2.8	0	0
Somerset	505	6	11.9	0	0
Staffordshire	817	3	3.7	6	2
Suffolk	435	4	9.2	0	0
Surrey	612	2	3.3	0	0
Warwickshire	426	3	7.0	0	0
West Sussex	668	1	1.5	0	0
Wiltshire	351	2	5.7	0	0
Isles of Scilly	0	0	—	0	0
England-Met Counties	21,26	86	4.0	10	0
Greater Manchester	4,322	11	2.5	0	0
Merseyside	1,905	10	5.2	5	0
South	1,568	7	4.5	0	0
Yorkshire
Tyne and Wear	1,541	5	3.2	0	0
West Midlands	3,099	11	3.5	0	0
West Yorkshire	3,224	6	1.9	0	0
Greater London	5,603	36	6.4	5	0
Wales	3,279	19	5.8	0	0
North Wales	694	6	8.6	0	0
Mid and West Wales	888	8	9.0	0	0
South Wales	1,698	5	2.9	0	0
Northern Ireland	2,710	10	3.7	5	0
Scotland	5,113	40	7.8	0	0
Strathclyde	2,608	15	5.8	0	0
Highland and Islands	192	1	5.2	0	0
Grampian	474	3	6.3	0	0
Tayside	337	9	26.7	0	0
Lothian and Borders	924	8	8.7	0	0
Fife	321	1	3.1	0	0
Central	171	3	17.5	0	0
Dumfries	87	0	0.0	0	0
1 A primary fire is any fire in a building or vehicle and/or a fire which involved casualties or rescues. Includes late call and heat and smoke damage incidents (not recorded prior to 1994).
2 Provisional.
3 The fatality figures for 2001–02 are likely to be revised as later information becomes available. Estimates for the revised totals for United kingdom and England and Wales are shown in brackets.
4 Since publication of 'Fire Statistics Monitor-Q1 2002' Bedfordshire has supplied data for quarter 1 2002. This means the figures here differ slightly from those previously published.