- Author
- Deaton, S. | Ford, G.
- Title
- Fires in the Home: Findings From the 2001/2 British Crime Survey.
- Coporate
- Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, London, England
- Distribution
- For more information contact: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, P.O. Box 236, Wetherby, West Yorkshire LS23 7NB, Telephone: 0870 1226 236, Fax: 0870 1226 237, Email: [email protected] FOR MORE INFORMATION: Copy of this report can also be downloaded from the Fire Statistics and Research web site: http://www.safety.odpm.gov.uk/fire/rds/index.htm
- Keywords
- fire statistics | fire risk | fire safety | safety | arson | fire departments | fire detection | extinguishing | fire alarm systems | smoke detectors | surveys | costs
- Identifiers
- British Crime Survey (BCS); extend and trends of fire; nature of fire; smoke alarm ownership; logistic regression; 2001 and 2002 questionnaires
- Abstract
- The British Crime Survey (BCS) is a large, nationally representative survey, which is primarily concerned with measuring the extent and nature of crime against adults living in private households in England and Wales. However, in addition, the BCS also asks respondents about other issues, one of which is domestic fire1. The BCS has included questions on domestic fires in six previous sweeps of the Survey, the most recent one being in 2000. This Bulletin reports on the latest sweep to incorporate questions on fire. For the first time, the BCS Bulletin has been published at the same time as the latest Statistical Bulletin on fires attended by the fire service in the United Kingdom2. BCS data on domestic fires serve as a useful supplement to records kept by fire brigades. Firstly, the BCS provides a fuller measure of the number of domestic fires in England and Wales. This is because many of the fires measured by the BCS result in little or no damage and consequently are often not brought to the attention of the fire brigade, thus escaping official recording. Even fires involving property damage or injury are not always brought to the attention of the fire brigade. Secondly, the BCS collects a wide range of social and demographic information, which then enables those groups within the population who are most likely to experience a domestic fire to be identified. Furthermore, in 2000 and 2001/2 the BCS also asked respondents whether they owned a smoke alarm, enabling those least likely to own an alarm to be identified.