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Welsh Government
Data Provider: Welsh Government National Statistics Fires, casualties and fatalities by area and financial year
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Click here to sort2007-08Click here to sort2008-09Since April 2009, data have been collected via the Incident Recording System (IRS). This has replaced the previous FDR paper forms and may cause an increase in the reporting of some categories of fire from 2009-10 onwards.Click here to sort2009-10Since April 2009, data have been collected via the Incident Recording System (IRS). This has replaced the previous FDR paper forms and may cause an increase in the reporting of some categories of fire from 2009-10 onwards.Click here to sort2010-11Click here to sort2011-12Click here to sort2012-13Click here to sort2013-14Click here to sort2014-15Click here to sort2015-16Click here to sort2016-17Click here to sort2017-18Click here to sort2018-19Click here to sort2019-20Click here to sort2020-21Click here to sort2021-22Revised dataClick here to sort2022-23Provisional data
[Collapse]All fires24,66119,52119,15220,68816,46411,43813,16911,65112,10810,75011,02312,91110,58710,32610,74011,066
All fires[Collapse]Primary firesIncludes all fires in non-derelict buildings and vehicles or in outdoor structures or any fire involving casualties, rescues, or fires attended by five or more appliances.7,6896,9856,8006,4145,6874,7454,7904,5614,6784,7574,3164,3924,2793,7963,9443,918
Primary firesIncludes all fires in non-derelict buildings and vehicles or in outdoor structures or any fire involving casualties, rescues, or fires attended by five or more appliances.Dwelling firesDwellings are defined as buildings occupied by households, excluding hotels, hostels and residential institutions. These figures include mobile homes and any non-permanent structures used solely as a dwelling, such as houseboats.2,3802,2572,2022,1082,0221,9111,9101,8081,7751,8581,6171,5551,6281,5011,5871,542
Other building fires1,5681,3751,4771,4231,1599859951,034963931922881869724804835
Road vehicle fires3,1932,8512,6632,2161,8201,5181,4821,4321,5731,6691,5041,4851,4401,1771,2181,177
Other primary fires548502458667686331403287367299273471342394335364
[Expand]Secondary firesThese are the majority of outdoor fires including grassland and refuse fires unless they involve casualties or rescues, property loss or five or more appliances attend. They include fires in single derelict buildings. They are reported in less detail than other fires and consequently less information concerning them is available.16,35211,72411,56213,50310,1625,9227,8016,5416,9985,5766,3018,1845,9786,1976,4966,871
[Expand]Chimney firesChimney fires are any fires in occupied buildings where the fire was confined within the chimney structure (and did not involve casualties or rescues or attendance by five or more appliances).620812790771615771578549432417406335330333300277
[Expand]FatalitiesA fatal casualty is a person whose death is attributed to a fire even if the death occurred weeks or months later. There are also occasional cases where it is subsequently found that fire was not the cause of death. The figures for fatalities are thus subject to revision.28172321231717201919152016212114
[Expand]Non-fatal casualtiesFrom 2009-10, non-fatal casualties are recorded as being in one of four classes of severity as follows:<br />(i) Victim went to hospital, injuries appear to be serious<br />(ii) Victim went to hospital, injuries appear to be slight<br />(iii) First aid given at scene<br />(iv) Precautionary check recommended – this is when an individual is sent to hospital or advised to see a doctor as a precaution, having no obvious injury or distress.<br />Non-fatal casualties marked as \'not fire-related\' have not been excluded (from 2009-10 onwards) due to widespread inappropriate use of this field. Therefore there is a possible discontinuity in the time series between 2008-09 and 2009-10.632657575607592541626543592621526396509408479422
[Expand]All rescues (including fatalities and non-fatal casualties who were rescued)A person who has received physical assistance to get clear of the area involved in the incident. <br />Does not include circumstances where the victim was clearly dead when found, but does include rescues which might have resulted in a life being saved, even if the person did not survive the rescue attempt...|The data item is not available..|The data item is not available234212214193243212246233215184217145179161

Metadata

Title

Fires, casualties and fatalities timeseries

Last update

October 2023 October 2023

Next update

September 2024

Publishing organisation

Welsh Government

Source 1

Fire incident recording system, Home Office

Contact email

stats.inclusion@gov.wales

Designation

National Statistics

Lowest level of geographical disaggregation

Fire and rescue authorities

Geographical coverage

Fire and rescue authorities

Languages covered

English and Welsh

Data licensing

You may use and re-use this data free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government License - see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence

General description

The table shows the number of fires (by type and location) and the associated casualties (fatalities and non-fatal casualties) attended by the Fire and Rescue Authorities in Wales.
Note: In April 2009 the method of data collection changed from paper forms to via the Incident Recording System (IRS). Data earlier than 2009-10 (pre IRS) are partially based on sampled data, weighted to true brigade totals.

2009-10 data were extracted from IRS in May 2011.
2010-11 data were extracted from IRS in May 2012.
2011-12 data were extracted from IRS in May 2013.
2012-13 data were extracted from IRS in May 2014.
2013-14 data were extracted from IRS in June 2015.
2014-15 data were extracted from IRS in July 2016.
2015-16 data were extracted from IRS in July 2017.
2016-17 data were extracted from IRS in July 2018.
2017-18 data were extracted from IRS in July 2019.
2018-19 data were extracted from IRS in September 2020
2019-20 data were extracted from IRS in August 2021.
2020-21 data were extracted from IRS in August 2022.
2021-22 and 2022-23 data were extracted from IRS in August 2023.
2022-23 data are currently provisional and will be updated September 2024.

Source: The Home Office
The nature of the live system means that data extracted for the Performance Indicator tables (in June) may not match that published here.
Non-fatal casualties marked 'not fire-related' have not been excluded due to some concern that this field has not been correctly used. There is therefore a possible discontinuity in the non-fatal casualties time series between 2008-09 and 2009-10.
Added to StatsWales: July 2011
Contact: stats.inclusion@gov.wales

Data collection and calculation

Data prior to 2009-10 were collected via the Fire Data Report (FDR) paper forms.
Data from 2009-10 onwards were collected via the Incident Recording System (IRS).

Frequency of publication

Annual

Data reference periods

Financial years 2001-02 to 2022-23

Users, uses and context

The data are used to inform policy decisions and to provide contextual information. The data is used by the Welsh Government to help monitor trends in incidents attended by FRAs over time and provides information on FRAs’ performance and activities to citizens and communities in Wales.
See web link for further information.

Rounding applied

Fire data prior to 2009-10 are based on a sampled dataset and so are rounded to the nearest whole number. For this reason the sum of component parts may not equal the totals shown.

Revisions information

Revisions are marked with an (r). The most recent year shown is currently provisional and may be revised when the table is next updated.

Statistical quality

See weblinks

Keywords

Fire, Fire and Rescue Authority, Casualties, Fatal, Non-fatal, Dwelling