Together with fire brigades, industry, and science, the Association for the Promotion of German Fire Protection (vfdb) has developed nationwide national fire damage statistics.
This provides a meaningful minimum basis for fire events in Germany. To date, more than 5,000 missions have been recorded. The statistics, which close a gap in German fire protection, will continue to be updated. The statistical data helps to investigate the effectiveness of (technical) fire protection measures.
fire damage statistics
Almost 80 percent of all alarms reach factory fire departments via fire alarm systems, while for professional fire departments and volunteer fire departments, the figure is around 60 percent. Only just under two percent reach the company fire departments via landline telephone, a good 21 percent of the professional fire departments, and around 24 percent of the volunteer departments.
The proportion of mobile phones used in alarms is roughly the same at all fire departments and is between 11.5 and 13.4 percent. These are just some of the previous results from the fire damage statistics published by Section 14 of the vfdb.
fire damage findings
When alarms were triggered by fire detectors, 84 percent of the damage remained under 1,000 euros
When evaluating the data collected, it was shown that greater fire damage was significantly lower when existing alarm systems were used than when the fire brigade was alerted via landline or mobile phones. When alarms were triggered by fire detectors, 84 percent of the damage remained under 1,000 euros.
For telephone alarms, it was only 63 percent. The difference was correspondingly clear for damages up to 100,000 euros: only three percent of the alarm reports came via fire alarm system, while almost twelve percent came via telephone.
fire protection measures
In addition to the effectiveness of (technical) fire protection measures, the statistics also provide additional, cross-fire brigade insights into the fire phenomenon.
For example, as the vfdb emphasizes, understanding the conditions under which a fire develops is important for prevention and control to select countermeasures effectively and efficiently. Data collection continues.
Evaluations
Since registering the details with the fire departments takes only about three minutes per operation, Thomas Hegger, Head of vfdb department 14, hopes that many more fire departments will take part.
“The larger the number of cases, the more certain the statements are,” emphasizes Thomas Hegger. The evaluation of the questionnaires is continuous so that further results can be published continuously if the number of cases increases and there are a sufficient number of individual reports per question complex.
