By Jamie Thompson
FireRescue1 News Editor
ATLANTA The amount of statistics and information readily available in today's world can be almost overwhelming.
But in the UK, the fire service has been undergoing a revolution in the past few years in the way it processes community and fire-related data stored on computer databases.
The shift in focus was spearheaded by the government, ordering departments to adopted integrated-risk management planning (IRMP) polices to manage fire risks and provide better value for money.
The idea behind it was to put people first and look at the risks that arise from the full range of fires and other emergency incidents that departments attend.
One of the key aspects of the new philosophy is to work closer with other public safety and community agencies to:
Reduce the number and severity of fires, road traffic collisions and other emergency incidents occurring in the department's area
Reduce the severity of injuries in fires, road traffic collisions and other emergency incidents
Reduce the commercial, economic and social impact of fires and other emergency incidents
At FRI in Atlanta, Thursday, Jim Marsden, assistant chief fire officer of Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, England, gave an insight how it has worked and how U.S. departments could benefit from some aspects of it.
He said IRMP was introduced as:
Fire and rescue services were purely intervention
Enforcement of fire safety was limited to commerce and industry
Resources were seen to be poorly used
Existing standards of fire cover did not really cover the risk
The new approach utilizes all the relevant available data available, such as census statistics and crime areas, to cater for the different needs of communities that fall within the department's area.
"There's greater efficiency and reporting of fires now," Marsden said. "Today's reporting mechanisms on computers and databases allow us
greater analysis of fires."
Different languages
Using IRMP, the department discovered that the second most spoken language in Manchester was Somali because of a huge and rapid and largely unmonitored influx of migrants from Somalia.
Up until then, while fire safety literature was printed in many languages, Somali was not one of them.
With the census information, the Greater Manchester department devised an action plan with social services and community organizations to better promote fire safety among the group, Marsden said.
Another surprising at-risk group was discovered by monitoring data: Men in their late teen and early 20s.
"We found that we were having a problem with single young males," said Marsden. "What was happening was they were going to nightclubs, then coming back home and putting the cooker on and falling asleep."
The department then launched a safety awareness campaign that targeted the group.
One of the mainstays in IRMP, Marsden said, is communication, not just with at-risk groups but with other agencies.
"One of the biggest drains on the fire and rescue service is small rubbish fires on the pavement at 2 a.m. in the morning," he said. "By working with refuse agencies, you can say, Let's get that rubbish picked up and moved before something happens."
Targeting arsonists is also vital, Marsden said. The department is one of many in the UK that have set up youth fire-setting programs to try to reform young arsonists.
"Fire setting in the UK has always been a problem," he said. "We've equipped our appliances with CCTV cameras in Manchester because it's such a big problem. The attitude always was, Let the law deal with them.' But then they'd go to court, get fined and come back into the community (and re-offend)."
"In nearly all cases, we've been successful in turning these people around," Marsden said.
