Fire is a fatal disaster with devastating consequences. Every year millions of fire incidents take place throughout the world. The damage can be a burned down building, a burn injury or even death. Unfortunately many people ignore the truth that fire incident can happen everywhere: factories, hospitals, schools, universities, shopping malls, workplaces, home etc.

According to Fire Safety Europe’s white paper that is published in 2014, 2.000.000 fire incidents take place annually in Europe. With a simple calculation, it can be understood that approximately 5.475 fires take place every day in Europe. Therefore it is quite obvious that fires are not random at all.

When a fire incident happens, both life and property safety will be in danger. According to Fire Safety Europe, 70.000 people are hospitalised in Europe each year due to severe injuries caused by fire. Also 126 billion euros worth material damage is caused every year in Europe because of fire. This number is approximately equivalent to 1% of European GDP. It is clear that fire is an economic burden on the European Union’s shoulders.

owadays, the density of flammable materials in the buildings is higher than the past years. Therefore the spread of fire is quicker in recent years. According to Fire Safety Europe, it takes for fire 3 minutes to burn down an entire room. The time period was 25 minutes in the 1950’s.

Also fire and rescue services arrive approximately 8 to 15 minutes after the fire is reported. This time period is much longer than 3 minutes. So it may be too late to prevent fatal damages of fire unless further precautions are taken.

What to do?

With developing technology, fires can be detected early and fire automations can be triggered. The first thing to do is building an intelligent addressable fire detection system which can monitor and control other electrical and mechanical systems in the building. Also it is very important that fire detection system devices have CPR certificates from notified bodies of European Commission.

For further information about intelligent addressable fire detection systems, click the link below:

Intelligent Addressable Fire Detection and Alarm Systems

Sources:

https://firesafeeurope.eu/resources/