Produced by Fire Safe Europe (FSEU), whose stated mission is to improve fire safety in buildings for European citizens, Call to Action: The EU Needs a Fire Safety Strategy was launched yesterday (24 November).
To promote the campaign they released a video of a head-to-head game where two teams sought an escape route from a burning building.
“What if you were trapped in a room full of smoke, with only one exit and 30 minutes to get out? Would you be able to escape? Across Europe people do not have the same survival chance when a building catches fire. We want to balance the odds.” The strapline to Fire Safe Europe’s new video
There is currently no coordinated approach to combatting the 5,000 fire incidents that occur each day in EU Member States.
The policy document opens with this call to arms:
We, the undersigned organizations, are calling for the EU to work on a European Fire Safety Strategy to create a coordinated approach to fire safety in the EU. The strategy must ensure that new and renovated buildings across the EU are resilient to fires and that prevention programs and policies are coordinated amongst EU Member States.
As a starting point we call on the Commission to set up an expert group on fire safety ensuring participation of a wide array of stakeholders from across the European Commission, Member States, civil society, the research community, and industry to map the issues, identify potential solutions, and draft a roadmap to achieve them. Comparable data collection, sharing of best practices, and setting a vision for Member States on fire safety could be the ideal aspiration for this group.
Fire safety is a major societal and safety issue. Despite the disparate data available on fires in EU Member States, figures suggest that there are at least 5,000 fire incidents each day in the EU. For many of these incidents, a community, business or family is affected, often for several years, sometimes for life.
Click here to find out more about the campaign and download the document.
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