|
Record rescues
NEW FIGURES from the Fire Brigades Union indicate that the overall number of recorded rescues undertaken by UK fire services from fires and vehicle crashes could be at unprecedented levels, with 322 people being rescued each week. A total of 83,668 rescues took place from 2001 to 2005, and 190,629 since records began in 1990 (these totals do not include rescues from flooding, a range of other 999 incidents and the July 2007 London terrorist attacks). During the five-year period, 25,551 people were rescued from fires in the UK.
Raise the roof
INSURER ZURICH is concerned that environmental motives might lead to issues of fire spread, combustibility and safety being overlooked, and has declared green roofs a fire risk. The roofs could become flammable in very dry weather, and school buildings with easily accessible roofs may be particularly vulnerable to arson, warns the company. In a statement, Zurich said that they would not refuse to insure such buildings, providing appropriate guidelines, maintenance regimes and risk assessments were followed. They will carry out further research in countries where green roofs are more prevalent.
One stop shop
EASY ACCESS to authoritative information related to fire is essential to keep abreast of working methods, research, technology, products and services. FIREINF has produced 15 databases of information with the latest news and developments, legislation, guidance and advice. Organisations worldwide, teachers of fire science, fire brigades and experts can access good-quality and focused data, including circulars, conference proceedings, statistics and codes of practice, both past and present.
More information is available from: www.shielapantry.com/interest.html
Extra FPA courses
DUE TO increased demand and as part of its partnership with ECA/FSA, the Fire Protection Association will be running a series of additional full and half-day training courses on various dates from the end of October. The courses include, and lead on from, core module M1A: Fundamentals of fire detection & alarm systems and fire legislation, and will cover fire detection and alarm workplace systems, aimed at design, installation, commissioning and service engineers.
Contact tel: +44 (0)208 884 4050 or e-mail: training@thefpa.co.uk
New statistics
THE COMMUNITIES and Local Government’s quarterly bulletin, Fire Statistics Monitor, has revealed that for the 12-month period up to 30 September 2007, UK fire and rescue services attended 826,500 fires and false-alarm incidents. The number of total fire deaths (450) fell by 7% compared to the previous 12 months, and primary fires fell by 10% to 147,500. Dwelling fires fell to their lowest figure since 1978 and road vehicle fires fell by 15% to 249,000. Attendance at false alarms decreased by 2% to 421,300, 10% of which were due to apparatus.
The statistics are available at: www.communities.gov.uk
Skills online
THE FIRE Protection Association Australia has developed an online training resource for passive fire service technicians, to address a current skills shortage in the country. The new learning and assessment materials provide a media-rich environment for technicians to build passive fire skills at their own pace, develop expertise and acquire national units of competency in the identification and inspection of fire and smoke doors, containment products and systems.
Further information is available at: www.fpaa.com.au
US fire fatalities
FIGURES PUBLISHED by the US National Fire Protection Association show that during 2007 one person was killed every two-and-a-half hours in fires in the USA. Although fire deaths and injuries increased that year, US fire departments responded to the lowest number of fires since 2004 – 1.6 million fires – representing a decrease of 5.2%. Fire deaths that year increased by 5.7%, with 84% of all fire deaths (2,865) occurring in the home, and civilian fire injuries increased even more, by 7.8%, with an injury taking place every 30 minutes.
The figures are available from website: www.nfpa.org
Bravery awards
SIX MEMBERS of Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service received bravery awards from the Royal Humane Society in September, for saving the life of 17-year-old Adam Wickson, who suffered severely lacerated wrists and blood loss following an accident at a Malmesbury youth centre. The six were commended for their action and professionalism. Wayne Jones, Chris Harvey, Nick Exton, Andy Mills, Roy Evans and Tim Gray arrived within two minutes from the fire station nearby to administer oxygen and first aid, including splinting Adam’s left wrist with a pack of chopsticks.
Road safety
WEST MIDLANDS Fire Service is holding a conference, Road Kill: Accept It or Change It!, on 21 October at its training centre in Smethwick. It is aimed at those in local government, the emergency services, and private and voluntary sectors, who are responsible for road safety. The conference will look at future developments in government policy, traffic enforcement and road safety engineering. It will feature high-profile speakers from the spheres of law enforcement, healthcare, politics, engineering and psychology.
Contact tel: +44 (0)121 380 6711 or e-mail: roadkill@wmfs.net
High and mighty
A WASHINGTON based federal agency, Frable, has joined a large US real estate industry group in contesting, on grounds of cost, three of the safety requirements for new skyscrapes added to the USA’s most widely used building code in 2007. As part of the response to the 2001 collapse of the World Trade Center, office buildings higher than 128m now require more robust fireproofing and a third emergency stairwell. The matter was being settled by vote at a national meeting of the building code council, convened to adopt the 2009 version of this ‘model code’ as a national template.
Further information at: www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/08/america/08codes.php
|