Fire burns 4 billion hole in UK economy

Citation

(2000), "Fire burns 4 billion hole in UK economy", Facilities, Vol. 18 No. 1/2. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.2000.06918aab.022

Fire burns 4 billion hole in UK economy

Keywords Costs, Fire safety

The cost of fire to the national economy is a staggering £4 billion each year, MPs were told at the House of Commons recently at a seminar organised by the Fire Industry Council.

Eighty delegates, including Chief Fire Officers, Parliamentarians, insurers and representatives of the fire protection industry, gathered at Westminster to discuss ways of containing the escalating economic, environmental and human costs of fires.

Crucial to the effort, it was argued, would be to establish a National Fire Safety Forum to bring together disparate stakeholders in the fire protection sector. Such a forum - which would include the Home Office, fire chiefs, the Fire Brigades Union, insurers and the fire protection industry - would help develop a national strategy for fire safety and bring together all aspects of fire protection which are currently spread across some 60 separate pages of legislation.

Jim Fitzpatrick, MP, Joint Chairman of the All Party, Fire Safety Group said:

The turnout at today's event demonstrates the strength of feeling that more must be done to improve fire protection. Rather than going up in flames, this £4 billion - £11 million for every single day of the year - could be usefully invested in public services and UK plc.

The FIC's Leslie Heaviside said:

The continuing death toll and rising losses to the national economy mean reform must not be delayed. Let us get together in a single, strategic forum. Let us end the present confusion and complexity of the existing fire safety regime and bring fire safety legislation together under a single umbrella.

Delegates also called on the Government to encourage businesses to install and maintain certified fire protection products, because quality products and systems act quickly to save lives and property in the crucial minutes before the arrival of firefighters.

The Fire Industry Council (FIC) represents the active fire protection industry in the UK, bringing together manufacturers and installers of fixed extinguishing systems, portable fire extinguishers, detection and alarm and other fire protection systems. FIC works with Government, insurers, users and enforcement authorities to deliver quality fire protection.

Speakers at the "Money to Burn?" seminar were Jim Fitzpatrick, MP (Joint Chairman of the All Party Fire Safety Group), Eddie Guy (Head of Home Office Fire Policy Unit), Ken Knight (Chief Fire Officer, West Midlands, Chief and Assistant Chief Fire Officers' Association), David Cowdrey (Association of British Insurers) and Leslie Heaviside (Fire Industry Council).

Recent Government research into vehicle safety provided a benchmark "monetary value" of each human life, estimated at £780,000. Thus the "human cost" of fire can be calculated at £1.73 billion per year based on 730 lives lost in 1997 and 12,600 casualties.

In establishing the £4 billion figure (see Table II), property losses, emergency services expenses and the costs, in human terms (by way of loss of dependency) are taken into account. £4 billion is, in fact, a conservative figure, since it does not include the costs of fires to Government property or Lloyd's - insured premises, for which information is unavailable. The breakdown of costs is shown in Table II.

For further information, please call Brendan Gately, General Manager, Fire Industry Council on +44 (0)181 549 8839 or Mike Hawes on +44 (0)171 287 0652.