World Fire Statistics Centre (WFSC)
History and Objects
Between 1975 and 1978, The Geneva Association sponsored research on European fire costs by Tom Wilmot at Sussex University. This led to the publication of a report, European Fire Costs – The Wasteful Statistical Gap, which formed the basis of a contribution by Mr Wilmot to a pilot study on fire statistics initiated by a United Nations Working Party in 1981. Subsequently Mr Wilmot, with the support of The Geneva Association, founded the World Fire Statistics Centre to carry forward this work within a more structured organisational framework.The Centre is primarily concerned with the practical problem of reducing fire waste rather than with academic research. The main focus of its work, the collection, analysis and dissemination of internationally comparable fire cost statistics, is thus seen as a means to an end: persuading governments to adopt coherent fire strategies aimed at reducing national fire costs.
Activities
Statistics
Each year the Centre collects and collates fire cost statistics under seven main headings from a steadily increasing number of leading countries worldwide, mainly from Europe but also including, for example, the USA, Japan and Canada, and more recently The Czech Republic, Slovenia and Singapore.
Each annual report from the Centre to the United Nations forms the basis of a Bulletin sent worldwide to relevant government departments, fire protection associations, fire brigades, insurance companies, fire engineers, the trade press and academic fire experts. These statistics have often proved of use during national reviews of various aspects of fire-related expenditure or organisation; for example the Audit Commission review of the fire services in England & Wales, a Greek study of building protection, a Norwegian study of the incidence of large fires in industry and a New Zealand examination of the risks of death and injury arising from fire. In addition, the Centre's statistics are often referred to in academic works, for example The Economics of Fire Protection (Prof. G. Ramachandran, Routledge, 1998).
Seminars
The Geneva Association has organised international seminars every three to four years, generally in Geneva, in order to enable the Centre's latest work to be presented and discussed and to provide a forum for other fire experts working in related fields. Over the years the Centre has been represented at many international conferences, e.g. the International Fire Symposium organised in Luxembourg in 1984 by the EC Commission, in liaison with the European Association of Professional Fire Brigade Officers and the Confederation of Fire Protection Associations - Europe. During more recent years, the Centre has attached increased emphasis to publicising its work, both by issuing a number of press releases and by giving a series of papers or talks at meetings and seminars in Prague, Nottingham, Helsinki, Oslo, Boston, Madrid, Melbourne, Hanover, Singapore, Krakow, Vienna and Minneapolis.
European Initiatives
For some years the Centre has been trying to interest the European Community Commission and the European Parliament in the inter-related issues of fire protection and fire costs. Despite some initially promising contacts, these approaches had achieved little success. However, a European fire statistics seminar organised jointly with the Federation of European Union Fire Officers Associations (FEU) in Augsburg on 19th June 2000 ended with an agreement on the establishment of a core group, to which the Centre is providing the secretariat, to develop proposals for a European fire statistics database to meet the needs of likely users, and this offers the prospect of concrete progress in a direction which the European Commission could support.
Publications
The World Fire Statistics Centre publishes a newsletter, World Fire Statistics—Information Bulletin of the World Fire Statistics Centre, which appears annually. It presents statistics on national fire costs from over 20 leading countries in an effort to persuade governments to adopt strategies aimed at reducing the cost of fire. The WFSC newsletter has been published since March 1984 and nrs. 13 to 26 are available in the virtual library. To suscribe to the WFSC newsletter click here.
See also statistics on fire deaths in Eastern, Central and South Eastern Europe and Central Asia based on the work of the World Health Organization: Table I - Accidental deaths from smoke, fire and flames, and Table II - Fire death rates in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
For further information on the World Fire Statistics Centre contact:
Prof. Brian Woodrow, Director,
World Fire Statistics Center,
3 Hickory Street, N1G2X2
Guelph, Ontario, CANADA
Tel: +1 519 821 5682