NFPA Journal - Winter 2022 - 34

will likely need additional money and training, as
well as a longer time horizon, before they come up
to speed, the report said. Even countries with robust
data experience will need time to align their efforts
with the report's new definitions and processes.
" This report is just a beginning, " said El Houssami,
who admits that, in many ways, the real work
hasn't even begun. The biggest hurdle will likely be
convincing the EU Parliament and the governments
of 27 nations to invest the time and money required
to realize the vision.
NEXT STEPS
Members of the FireStat group will soon meet
with EU leadership to present their recommendations
and request funding for a pilot project to
test how well the FireStat proposal works in the
real world. " All of this is very theoretical-even
though we tried to make it practical, you always
forget something, " El Houssami said. " We need
to try and get a couple of counties, regions, or
even fire brigades to implement this proposal as
a pilot project for a year or two so that we can get
data, analyze it, and compare it, which will help
us improve the definitions and methodologies of
what we're proposing. "
At this stage, each country's participation in the
project is voluntary, but the hope is that public safety
organizations and advocacy groups throughout
Europe will see the benefit and put pressure on local
governments to join. The early signs are promising.
In a survey sent to regulators in each EU member
state, all 19 nations that responded said they were
in favor of providing harmonized fire statistics for
collection at a European level. Before the report was
even published, fire authorities in at least a few EU
member states discussed changing their data definitions
to match those in the report, said Manes, the
researcher from Liverpool.
Enthusiasm for the work has been high since the
project's launch. " One of the biggest surprises as we
were doing this project was the level of collaboration
and the unconditional support that we received from
national and local authorities, fire brigades, and the
numerous bodies in the EU member states, " Manes
said. " There is a high level of interest in improving
fire statistics to better understand fire risks and fire
protection across the EU. "
In the longer term, members of the FireStat conNFPA.ORG/
FIREDATA
Read
the EU
FireStat report
on its fire data
harmonization
project.
Listen to an
NFPA Podcast
on the Grenfell
investigation.
sortium believe the model they've created could serve
as the basis for an international standard on data
collection. The last recommendation in the report
states that " definitions and methodologies proposed
in the project undergo a standardisation process via
an official standardisation body which would provide
a recognised basis and facilitate its dissemination to
all EU member states or even internationally. "
If that were to happen, countries with little to
no experience gathering fire data would suddenly
34 | NFPA JOURNAL * WINTER 2022
Data Works
Quality fire data has already
generated an array of important
safety steps
History is replete with examples large and
small of where quality fire data led society
down a path it might otherwise have never
known to travel.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, data gathered
by fire departments and insurance companies
in the United States revealed that the number
of children dying in fires was climbing, and that
preschoolers playing with fire was the leading
cause of death for the age group. Citing those
statistics, in 1994 the US Consumer Product
Safety Commission began mandating that the
600 million disposable butane lighters sold
in the nation each year had to be made with
child-resistant features.
The results over the last three decades have
been dramatic. Home fires caused by kids playing
with fire declined from 24,000 each year in
the early 1990s to fewer than 5,000 annually in
2018, according to NFPA research. Meanwhile,
the yearly number of civilian deaths due to
children playing with fire fell 85 percent over
that same period, from 330 to 50.
Data has also led the drive for the near-universal
use of smoke detectors in the developed
world, and to the growing use of fire sprinklers
in public and residential spaces. It has influenced
aspects of how modern structures are
designed, maintained, and built. None of it
would likely have happened had we not looked
at big-picture trends-things that can only be
known through a detailed cataloging of the fires
that have taken place and the circumstances
that surrounded them.
-J.R.
AMAN SRIVASTAVA/EYEEM/GETTY IMAGES
http://www.NFPA.ORG/FIREDATA http://www.NFPA.ORG/FIREDATA

NFPA Journal - Winter 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - Winter 2022

Contents
NFPA Journal - Winter 2022 - Cover1
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NFPA Journal - Winter 2022 - 5
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