11 June 2012
The States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service has published its Annual Review for 2011.
Incident statistics
The key points to note are as follows:
- in 2011 the Service met its response times for high risk property fires (first fire engine in 10 mins and second fire engine in 13 minutes) on 91% of occasions
- 2011 was one of the safest on record for the Fire and Rescue Service - the total number of incidents the service responded to in 2011 was 1,093 - a reduction of 22.5% when compared to 2010. This decrease was reflected across all areas of emergency incidents attended by the service
- the total number of fires attended in 2011 was 228, down by 16.2% on 2010. This is the lowest number of fires attended by the service for over 50 years
The main causes of fires in 2011 were:
| Cause of fire |
Percentage |
| Electrical fault |
22.1% |
| Housekeeping (ie poor positioning of furniture etc) |
14% |
| Kitchen / cooking |
13.2% |
| Deliberate / suspicious |
8.8% |
| Mechanical failure |
8.1% |
| Smoking |
6.6% |
| Poor construction |
1.5% |
| Other non-specific |
25.7% |
- the number of house fires in 2011 was comparable with 2010; 51 and 52 respectively. Fires in commercial / industrial premises were down by 16.6% to 25 and the number of vehicles fires was also down by 24% to 19%
- there were no fire deaths in 2011, making this one of the longest sustained periods without a single fire death. There was also a reduction in the number of people injured by fires to 5 compared to 7 in 2010. The service rescued 10 people from property fires in 2011
- the service’s rescue role continues to be a busy area. However, there were far fewer ‘Emergency Special Services’ (non-fire incidents that threaten life or damage) in 2011, down from 396 in 2010 to 301 in 2011. This is mainly due to a reduction in the number of road accidents attended down by 36.7%, from 109 in 2010 to 69 in 2011. In 2011 the Service rescued 81 people from non-fire emergencies
Reducing risk in the community
- the service continued to promote community safety in 2011 through its own activities and in partnership with Prison Me No Way, Child Accident Prevention Jersey, Prince’s Trust, the Youth Service and the other emergency services
- in 2011 our small, specially trained and qualified fire safety team (all of whom are operational firefighters at various levels) carried out 545 fire protection inspections, issued 142 licenses and completed 267 fire safety reports
- demand for the new Workplace Fire Safety Training courses was maintained in 2011 with 1,191 students attending the courses compared to 1,201 in 2010. The service’s Workplace Fire Safety Training programme was nominated as a finalist in the UK’s Fire Excellence Awards 2011 in the ‘Best Training Initiative’ category
- firefighters carried out 188 home fire safety visits in 2011, installing 209 smoke detectors. They also installed 15 special smoke detectors for the hard of hearing
- as part of the service’s Fire Safety Education programme for schools, firefighters delivered a 1 hour ‘Sparks’ fire safety session for all year 4 students in each of the Island’s 32 primary schools. The service also attended 6 nurseries and it continued to deliver community safety at public events by attending 9 of the Island's main events including the Battle of Flowers and the Boat Show
Chief Fire Officer, Mark James, said "The Fire and Rescue Service is passionate about reducing the number of fires, fire injuries and deaths in Jersey. It is fantastic to see that our hard work has achieved a significant reduction in the numbers of fires to a 50-year low. Fires can be devastating so these results cannot be taken for granted. The service must continue to work to ensure that these achievements are sustained, whilst the population and number of properties in Jersey continue to increase".
Download Fire Service Annual Review 2011 (size 2.56mb)
gov.je