Citation

Rosenberg T. Fire Safety J. 1999; 33(4): 283-294.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The aim of the study is to gather and analyse data on various numbers of activities, risk sources and causes of fires in order to find out to what extent existing data could be used as a baseline to improve fire prevention at a local level. The investigations and analyses use data from Swedish authorities, organisations and insurance companies from 1922 up to the present. There are some comparisons with international data included. The available fire statistics are mainly consequence-related. Data linked to activities, risk sources and causes of fires is scarce. The study shows that existing data is not structured for systematic fire prevention. To radically reduce the number of fires a change from a focus on firefighting and emergency response to a focus on systematic fire prevention is needed, which from the perspective of the fire and rescue service, is a very large step. This in turn requires improved statistics, education, and leadership, methodologies and tools for systematic fire prevention.