Automatic fire alarms saved €16 million in fire damage

Press release 9 February 2017

In 2016, the rescue departments had a total of 105,600 rescue and assistance tasks. Of these, 29,700 (28%) were tasks resulting from accidents, 31,900 (30%) were inspection and verification tasks and 27,700 (26%) were tasks assisting emergency medical services and first response tasks. There were 16,300 (15%) other rescue and assistance tasks.

• In 2016, the numbers of rescue and assistance tasks carried out by the rescue departments were at the same level as in previous years.
• There were 105,600 tasks in total, of which 5,600 were building fires.
• Some trends of change can be seen: the numbers of tasks assisting emergency medical services and of animal rescue tasks are increasing.
• Automatic fire alarm systems reported a real building fire 800 times. Early fire alarms can be estimated to have prevented at least €16 million in damage.
• The busiest day of the year was caused by storm Rauli: there were 2,600 tasks on 27 August 2016.
• The fire at Ylivieska church caused last year’s largest material damage.
• A residential fire in Helsinki in December caused the most serious casualties: there were four victims.
• The attic fire on Ursininkatu in Turku in January required the most rescue personnel. 124 people took part in the rescue operations.

Inspection and verification tasks

There were a total of 31,900 inspection and verification tasks. The number rose slightly; the average for the previous five years was 30,000 tasks. Automatic fire alarm systems raised an alarm 20,100 times, 800 of which were for a real fire. In these real fires reported by an automatic fire alarm system, the early alarm kept the damage per fire to only a quarter of that for other methods of reporting. Had the real fires reported by automatic fire alarm systems caused as much damage as fires reported by other methods, the damage would have been €16 million greater.

The number of inspection and verification tasks generated by automatic fire alarm systems has been falling in recent years, apparently because a charge is made for them. In 2016, the downward trend ended and the number of automatic fire alarms was higher than in the previous year (in 2015 there were 18,386 tasks generated by automatic fire alarm systems). The increase in the number of automatic fire alarms is almost entirely due to fire alarms from reception centres and emergency accommodation facilities. Reception centres and emergency accommodation were typically set up in empty or under-used buildings, and they generated a large number of automatic fire alarms. The increase is also explained by the growth in the number of fire alarm systems at other sites connected to the Emergency Response Centre.

See also: A well-maintained fire alarm system reduces fire damage and The right protection saves work and limits damage.