- Author
- National Fire Protection Association
- Title
- Public Fire Services: Some of the Problems; Some Suggestions.
- Coporate
- National Fire Protection Association, Boston, MA
- Keywords
- fire departments | management systems | fire protection | standards | training | education | fire fighting equipment | fire fighting vehicle | fire fighters
- Identifiers
- volunteer fire services; public fire protection standards; nationalization, regionalization
- Abstract
- Critics of the Fire Service sometimes imply that the need for such services is questionable; that because the nation's loss figures are high the service must be deemed inefficient. While there are admittedly deficiencies it is also very reasonable to state that without the public fire services, the National loss picture would be grossly higher than at present. Of the 1971 national loss figure of $2.8 billion, 13.5% of this loss was caused by just .02% of the total fires reported. Of the 1,085,000 building fires, only 502 extended to a loss over $250,000. In one state for which information is available, in one year 72.77% of the fires were confined to losses of less than $500 and only 0.23% extended to a loss over $100,000. The contents of this report do not necessarily reflect official policy of NFPA, which has already been submitted to the Commission. It is intended to be, however, an objective view of the current situation as seen from the national level by staff who have constant contact with every aspect of the public fire service and fire protection generally.