November 5 has traditionally been fire brigades’ busiest night, as home firework displays go wrong, and the period around Halloween, Diwali (which this year fell on November 3), and Bonfire Night itself a week ago, usually sees a spike in fire incidents. Click here to view Figure 1. Figures released by London Fire Brigade revealed that Bonfire Night 2013 was the quietest on record, with just 119 fires in the capital, down slightly from 125 last year, and continuing a downward trend that has seen fires reduced from 460 in 2006 on November 5. This represents an incredible 74.13 percent reduction in Bonfire Night incidents in the past seven years, underlining some of the excellent prevention and awareness work that has been undertaken by fire services in recent years. In a statement, London’s Fire Commissioner said:
We work very hard to remind the public about the importance of staying safe on Bonfire Night, and it’s brilliant that the number of fires is dropping on a yearly basis. Everyone at the London Fire Brigade strives to bring the number of call outs down year on year, so we’re very pleased that this was once again our quietest Bonfire Night on record.
The number of fires in London on Bonfire Night has reduced every year since 2009 — when there was an 8 percent rise on the previous year from 209 to 226 fire incidents. Meanwhile, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service revealed a dramatic reduction in calls received when compared to last year. In 2012, control room operators in Manchester received 649 calls, which was down by over 50 percent this year to 306 calls. The service revealed there were “no major incidents,” and put the reduction down to awareness work, as well as damp conditions and the fact that Bonfire Night fell in midweek this year.
The new single Scottish Fire and Rescue Service faced its first official Bonfire Night, making statistic gathering somewhat easier across the country, and the fire service reported 1,088 incidents, including a major fire in a disused hospital building in Aberdeen. The blaze at the Royal Cornhill Hospital took 70 firefighters almost 24 hours to tackle, and the blaze is currently being treated as “unexplained,” according to the fire service. Click here to view Figure 2. Provisional figures revealed that there was an overall reduction in fire incidents of around 40 percent across Scotland. Assistant Chief Officer Lewis Ramsay, Director of Prevention and Protection for SFRS, praised his crews, control rooms, and support staff, saying:
This year we issued a call to action for everyone in our communities to Join Scotland’s Fight Against Fire. By acting safely and responsibly and attending organised displays, the public have made Scotland safer than ever before.
Worryingly, the Scottish FRS also reported 20 incidents of attacks on SFRS crews across the country.
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I didn’t see it mentioned exactly how they are getting the word out about the fire dangers. Is this more or less an advertising/public service announcement type of campaign or are they actively patrolling looking for fires that are burning in potentially dangerous areas? Years ago while living in Detroit the night before Halloween was big for house fires. After a community activist group took to the streets the numbers dwindled down to almost nothing. I was wondering what tact the local fire brigades were taking since it seems to be working quite well.
Ok, the fires I can understand as the observance of a holiday or just a reason for celebration but the attacks on SFRS are not acceptable. No would should catch trouble for doing their job and in this case it was probably to keep the people that attacked them safe which is just sad. I hope those SFRS members that were attacked are ok and still out there working to keep the community safe.
Generally it’s marketing campaigns — Facebook, press, billboards, tv etc.
Nothing too exciting. This active response sounds interesting though. Would that be a community self-regulating essentially?
I took from the tone of the statements that these attacks weren’t serious ones, as there was no mention of staff being off for hospital treatment or anything, but it’s still worrying and, as you say, completely unwarranted.
Yes the community was self regulating. In years past they called the night before Halloween “devil’s night” a community group got tired of the vandalism and fires so they organized and adopted the name “angel’s night”. They had groups that walked the neighborhoods in the days leading up to Halloween letting people know that they planned on patrolling that night then they had small groups walking the neighborhoods after dark. It’s amazing what can happen just by having a few sets of eyes on the situation.
Reminds me of the story about the few days after London’s 2011 riots. With 16k police on the streets to stop the riots it actually ended up as one of the quietest weeks for crime in recent years. If resources were big enough, people on the street with authority remain the biggest deterrant.
Very true. I really like what the community group did and with the name they chose, “angel’s night.” It was really fitting and I think it was just good for everyone all around, especially the safety aspect of it. Sometimes people cross a line when they feel that authority is not present. Having others keep them in check will make sure this doesn’t happen.
I agree with you, Rob. I think there has to be a clear and distinct presence of authority to make sure that people “behave”, for lack of a better word. Unfortunately, resources are not readily abundant or available at any given time.
I think this is a good example of a low/no cost solution. They had the backing of the local law enforcement but they were not directly associated so any flyers or materials didn’t come from law enforcemnet budgets. It’s a great way to address issues like vandalism when you know that one day a year is much more likely to see such issues.