Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has released fire statistics for the whole of Greater Manchester for the year 2017-18, which show that while there was a 4.5% reduction in all incidents, there was an increase in deliberate fires, accidental fires and hostilities towards fire crews.
In Salford there were 3,645 fire incidents in total. This includes 1,196 deliberate fires, started intentionally to homes, businesses and objects like trees and bins. There was an increase of 4% in these fires over the whole of Greater Manchester, although the tables don't specify the increase in Salford itself. There was also an increase in false alarms in the city – 1,428, with many call outs due to faulty alarm systems.
There were 198 accidental fires in people's homes in Salford (a 2.77% increase over the whole of Greater Manchester) and 91 'non-domestic' fires in the city (a 2.71% increase over the whole of GM).
In Salford there were 14 'hostility incidents' in which crews have been attacked, and over the whole of Greater Manchester there were 93 such incidents, an increase of 50% on the previous year. Salford has the third highest number of such attacks in Greater Manchester, although a tiny proportion in relation to total call outs.
Meanwhile, the Greater Manchester Fire Service carried out 4,270 'safe and well' visits in Salford to help with fire risk reduction, health, wellbeing and home security, although the main causes of sickness absences for fire fighters themselves are stress, mental health issues and musculoskeletal injuries...
"We are losing approximately ten fire fighters every month due to retirements and other factors" states the GM Fire Service, adding that there are currently a shortfall of 147 fire fighters in the region. It's launching a recruitment campaign to find an extra 332 personnel over the next two years.
While the overall level of fire incidents was down 4.5% on the previous year, this was due to less Special Service Calls, or medical incidents, after the Fire Service withdrew from a Emergency Medical Response (EMR) trial where crews were dispatched in parallel with North West Ambulance for things like heart attacks.
During 2017/18, 21 people died as a result of a fire incident in Greater Manchester, eight of which were accidental, compared to 17 the year before, 11 of which were accidental.
The good news is that the average response time for the first fire engine to attend an incident in Greater Manchester is five minutes 38 seconds, one of the quickest in the country, and that 97.36% of appliances were crewed and available during 2017/18, which is an improvement when compared to the 96.84% reported during 2016/17.
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