Fire services now called to more rescues and crashes than fires, Home Office figures reveal

Home Office statistics released yesterday (Thursday) showed that non-fire incidents accounted for 31 per cent of all call-outs for England’s fire and rescue services in the year ending March 2020, surpassing the number of fires which accounted for 28 per cent.

These types of incidents, which include road crashes, human and animal rescues, floods, and suicide attempts have risen by 37 per cent over the past five years.

The figures have not been broken down by brigade, but West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said that it saw 300 extra non-fire rescues from the year before - rising to 1,100 - while seeing a dramatic 20 per cent reduction in arson incidents.

Yesterday’s figures also showed the number of fatalities from fires decreased by four per cent from the year before and are currently at the lowest they have been in the past decade, with 243 deaths from fires last year.

Approximately three quarters of these were from fires in private dwellings.

Among these, sadly, were the deaths of Garry Bolton and his 10-year-old daughter Paige Bolton at a house fire in Hull in January this year, as well as a woman in her 80s who was found dead following a house fire in Eggborough, North Yorkshire, in December.

Meanwhile, the number of false alarms was a small rise from the year above and accounts for 42 per cent of all callouts, although only three per cent of these were deemed to be deliberate time-wasters.

Crews were called out to 775 fires at high-rise blocks of flats, which accounted for three per cent of all fires in the home. The number of high-rise fires, however, fell by six per cent from the previous year (821).

Of the non-fire related call-outs, some 31,080 were road crashes, with 15,526 involving floods and at least 4,459 being medical incidents as well as 1,975 rescues from water and more than 11,000 where people were stuck in lifts.

They also included 5,278 incidents where objects had to be removed from people – 3,145 of which were rings and 218 of which were handcuffs.

There were 210 call-outs for people stuck in mud and 796 incidents where a domestic animal had to be rescued from a height.

The rise in non-fire related call-outs follows a warning from Humberside Fire and Rescue Service this week over a rising social media craze of young people attempting to climb into swing sets for young children and babies at public playgrounds.

The service said it was seeing an emerging trend of teenagers and young adults finding themselves stuck in the swings, with the scenario filmed by friends and posted on social media platform TikTok. Crews in Humberside have been called to 15 such incidents since the beginning of June, the bulk of which have been in Hull and Scunthorpe.

Humberside’s Group Manager Matt Sutcliffe said: “We want all young people to enjoy the summer safely and responsibly. Sadly, we have yet another social media craze which is putting young people in danger and stretching our crews when they could be preparing for or attending actual life threatening incidents.

“These incidents can leave the young person with bruising and cause them great distress. On one occasion last month we had to administer oxygen after one girl fainted.”

Overall, fire crews attended 557,299 incidents between March of 2019 and of this year, which was three per cent fewer than the previous period (576,391).

Of these, 153,957 were fires – a 16 per cent fall compared to the previous year (182,915), driven “particularly” by a drop in the number of outdoor fires in hot weather which did not put people or property in danger, according to a report.

Commenting on the figures, Scott Donegan, Area Manager at West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service said: "We at West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service saw a reduction in the total number of emergencies firefighters attended in 2019/2020, with 2,321 less than the previous year (23,355 in 2019/2020).

"We have seen a significant reduction in arson (19.5 per cent) which is testament to the partnerships that continue with the Police, Local Authorities and third sector organisations.

"We recorded 1,100 rescues in 2019/2020 – this is 300 more than the year before. Many of these additional rescues are due to a new partnership with Yorkshire Ambulance Service in which paramedics can request our help to gain access to properties if it is felt someone is at risk due to ill health.

"We are committed to protecting the people of West Yorkshire and will continue to provide fire, road and water safety advice to people across the county and respond quickly to emergency situations."