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Prevention
Prevention is central to how we reduce risk and keep people safe. We focus on reducing the likelihood of incidents occurring, limiting the severity of harm when they do occur, and reducing demand on emergency response. We do this through targeted interventions, education and partnership working that support people to adopt safer behaviours and improve their health and wellbeing. Our approach is based on identifying the people, places and behaviours that present the highest risk and directing activity where it will have the greatest impact.
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As a prevention team, we focus on keeping our communities safe through education,
intervention, and community engagement.
Our main focus is fire, road,
and water safety, and trying to reduce deliberate fires.
We do this through home fire safety visits,
community engagement with young people, events,
and working closely with partners of agencies in local areas.
We do lots of work to keep older vulnerable people safe that are living alone.
We target vulnerable adults that may have health conditions
that put them more at risk from having a fire
or been able to evacuate from their home if there was a fire,
people that may have dementia, mobility problems,
or learning disabilities. We offer advice
and support and work with agencies to make sure they are safe in their own homes.
Data suggests that young people are more likely to set deliberate fires.
This is a huge risk for them,
firefighters, and the community. We do a lot of work with young people
to try and stop this from happening,
including, every Year 5 student receives a
fire safety presentation to educate them on the risks of fire setting
and the consequences that may come with this.
We actively complete home fire safety visits for at risk homes.
We focus on eight components such as smoking,
cooking, or electrical safety.
We also provide smoke alarms,
including sensory alarms for people that are hard of hearing.
To keep everyone in our community safe,
we work with partners and agencies such as housing,
police, health care, and social care.
Our prevention team engage with communities
and set up projects to reduce arson
and deliberate fires we're also increasing youth engagement to reduce antisocial behaviour.
Keeping people safe is at the heart of what we do.
Prevention plays a huge role in this through educating,
reducing risk to keep people safe.
What are the risks
National and local data consistently shows that the older you get, the more likely you are to suffer a serious injury or die if you have a fire in your home. This risk increases even more if you live alone or are over 65.
Older people are also more likely to live with conditions like dementia, have poor mobility or experience health problems which put them at risk of having a fire or an accident.
There are other risk factors that impact people under the age of 65 that put them at higher risk of injury or death, such as lifestyle and living conditions. We have seen an increased risk of fire death and injury in males, over 50, who live alone often with mental health issues and alcohol and/or drug dependencies.
At the other end of the age spectrum, we are seeing an increase in the number of young people living with mental health issues. Young people are often responsible for deliberately setting fires, wasting firefighters’ time and putting property and lives at risk.
Raising public awareness and improving public education on the risks that could result from climate change impacts, and how to avoid them, is central to our prevention work in local communities. Influencing how the public behaves in an environment where risks are exacerbated because of climate change impacts is an important part of prevention activity. For example, irresponsible use of barbeques can result in wildfires and cooling off in water in hot summer temperatures comes with water safety risks.
How our Prevention work reduces risk
Our prevention activity focuses on reducing both the likelihood and the impact of incidents across our communities. By targeting those most at risk, we intervene early to prevent fires and other emergencies from occurring.
Where incidents do happen, our work helps reduce their severity and the harm caused to individuals.
Through intelligence-led Home Fire Safety Visits, partnership working, and targeted education, we:
- Reduce accidental dwelling fires and fire-related injuring and deaths.
- Minimise the severity of fires by improving early detection and safer behaviours.
- Protect vulnerable people by addressing the factors that increase risk, including health, mobility and living conditions.
- Reduce demand on emergency response and wider public services by preventing incidents before they occur.
This approach ensures our resources are directed where they have the greatest impact, improving community safety, supporting health and wellbeing, and building more resilient communities.
What we currently do
We deliver prevention activity aligned to identified risk, with a clear focus on reducing incidents and improving outcomes:
- We deliver targeted Home Fire Safety Visits to those most at risk using data-led profiling and our Online Home Fire Safety Check referral tool. This reduces the likelihood of fire and limits fire growth, contributing to fewer incidents and reduced severity.
- We work with partners across health, social care, housing and policing to identify and support vulnerable individuals. This addresses underlying risk factors, reduces repeat incidents and improves safety and wellbeing.
- We deliver safeguarding activity to ensure individuals at risk are referred to appropriate services, preventing escalation and supporting longer-term stability.
- We use targeted interventions and education to reduce arson and deliberate fire setting, reducing risk to communities and firefighters.
- We engage children and young people through education, Fire Cadets and early intervention programmes, promoting safer behaviours and reducing future risk.
- We deliver a commissioned falls response service and wider health activity, reducing demand on ambulance and health services and preventing repeat incidents.
- We work with partners to deliver road and water safety education, helping to reduce serious injuries and fatalities.
- We deliver targeted advice and support on key safety themes throughout the year in collaboration with the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC).
- We work with our partners across health, social care, housing and the police to make sure that people are safeguarded and get the support they need.
- We engage with young people, with partners through our Inspiration 3-day delivery programme, which aims to provide meaningful work experience opportunities, positive behaviours and good citizenship.
- Our falls response service supports vulnerable individuals and reduces demand on ambulance services and hospitals. It also prevents repeat incidents and improves overall safety within the home environment.
We track the severity of dwelling fires to help reduce their impact, even though they cannot be completely prevented. High-severity fires, those causing injury or death, are rare. The number of these incidents peaked in 2010 but still account for 15 to 25 % of fires per year since 2016, with an overall decreasing trend.
Accidental Dwelling Fires
Medium-severity fires have seen the most significant changes and are likely where our prevention efforts can have the greatest impact. These fires also peaked in 2010 but have shown a statistically significant decline since. Additionally, medium and low-risk fires are converging. This indicates that dwelling fires are becoming less severe. Accidental dwelling fires (ADFs) have experienced a similar and significant decrease, following the trend seen in medium-severity fires.
What we will do
- We will strengthen our prevention approach to maximise impact and ensure activity is clearly linked to risk reduction and improved outcomes:
- Increase Home Fire Safety Visits, maintaining a focus on those most at risk to further reduce fire incidence and severity.
- Refine risk identification processes to improve targeting accuracy and ensure activity is directed where it has the greatest impact.
- Strengthen partnership working to address complex and interconnected risks, reducing repeat demand and improving outcomes.
- Expand early intervention with children and young people to reduce future risk behaviours.
- Develop our approach to arson reduction to reduce deliberate fire setting and associated demand.
- Develop volunteering opportunities to extend reach and increase delivery capacity.
- Explore opportunities to expand the falls response service to further reduce demand on health services.
- Incorporate emerging risks, including lithium-ion battery safety, into prevention activity.
- Support national and local campaigns on seasonal and climate-related risks, using them to reinforce targeted, year-round delivery.