Official Statistics

Outdoor fires dataset guidance

Updated 23 August 2024

Applies to England

Publishing Incident Recording System data on the fire and rescue service at an incident level:

Frequency of release: Annual

First publication: 20 December 2018

Latest update: 30 July 2024

Forthcoming releases: Home Office statistics release calendar

Home Office responsible statistician: Helene Clark

Press enquiries: pressoffice@homeoffice.gov.uk

Telephone: 0300 123 3535

Public enquiries: firestatistics@homeoffice.gov.uk

1. Background

Data quality

Incident records in the Incident Recording System (IRS) are the responsibility of and quality assured by fire and rescue services (FRSs). The Home Office and FRSs work together to improve the data within the IRS and minimise any inconsistencies or errors. However, as the IRS was not designed with record level datasets in mind, a very small number of previously unidentified inconsistencies have been discovered (see project overview for further detail).

IRS incident records are a judgement call of the lead fire officer at the time of the incident. The quality of the information provided by fire and rescue services is variable and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed, especially at a record level, for instance some records involve estimation by those in attendance.

Dataset rationale

The Home Office receive requests regarding outdoor fires. This dataset provides this information but not at such a precise level that personal data could be identified and/or linked from other datasets.

Dataset definition

The outdoor fires dataset covers incidents attended by FRSs that were outdoor fires (primary or secondary) plus secondary fires in dwellings, other buildings and road vehicles.

The Home Office only has jurisdiction for fire policy in England and therefore has published incident data for England only.

It should be noted that some users ask the Home Office for data on “wildfires”. This dataset, whilst covering outdoor fires, does not define a wildfire.

The data in this dataset is consistent with records that reached the IRS by 15 May 2024.

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2. Variable by variable - scene setting

Variable Name: FRS_TERRITORY
Variable Description: The FRS in which the incident took place
IRS Question: 1.6

The fire and rescue service (FRS) refers to the territory in which the incident took place, not necessarily the FRS which responded. Occasionally an FRS will respond to an incident “over the border”, because of this, users should be careful about making general comments about particular FRSs as some incidents may have been attended by other FRSs. This dataset only covers incidents that took place in England.

Due to data protection issues we have merged Isles of Scilly data with Cornwall, as the number of outdoor fires in Isles of Scilly is minimal [there were 69 between the financial year 2010 to 2011 and financial year 2023 to 2024]. Figures for Dorset and Wiltshire, who merged into one FRS on 1st April 2016, are presented merged. Figures for Hampshire and Isle of Wight, who merged into one FRS on 1 April 2021, are presented merged.

Variable Name: E_CODE_TERRITORY
Variable Description: The E Code of the FRS
IRS Question: 1.6 (based on)

The standard National Statistics code (E Code) of the fire and rescue service (FRS) in FRS_TERRITORY. In this case the code for Cornwall has been used for the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly combined FRS.

Variable Name: LSOA_CODE
Variable Description: The Lower Layer Super Output Area in which the incident took place
IRS Question: 4 (based on)

A Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) is a geographic area. Lower Layer Super Output Areas are a geographic hierarchy designed to improve the reporting of small area statistics in England and Wales. Further information can be found on the ONS Website. Please note that this dataset uses the LSOA geography based on the 2021 Census, which is different to the LSOA geography based on 2011 Census. Previous editions of this dataset used the LSOA geography based on 2011 Census.

Variable Name: LSOA_DESCRIPTION
Variable Description: The description of the Lower Layer Super Output Area in which the incident took place
IRS Question: 4 (based on)

A Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) is a geographic area. Lower Layer Super Output Areas are a geographic hierarchy designed to improve the reporting of small area statistics in England and Wales. Further information can be found on the ONS Website. Please note that this dataset uses the LSOA geography based on the 2021 Census, which is different to the LSOA geography based on 2011 Census. Previous editions of this dataset used the LSOA geography based on 2011 Census.

Variable Name: FINANCIAL_YEAR
Variable Description: The financial year the incident took place
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

A financial year runs from 1 April to 31 March. Record level information is published from the financial year 2010 to 2011 - although the IRS began in April 2009 there are a few minor issues with the the financial year 2009 to 2010 records which mean that while statistics at higher levels are robust some of the incident level records are not of a sufficient quality to publish. Incidents are allocated to financial year depending on the time of the call, which is usually collected through automatic systems, so for example an incident where the call was made at 23.59 on March 31 2010 but the incident was closed at 01.34 on April 1 2010 would be allocated to the financial year 2009 to 2010 not the financial year 2010 to 2011.

Variable Name: CALENDAR_YEAR
Variable Description: The calendar year the incident took place
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

A calendar year runs from 1 January to 31 December. Record level information is published from the financial year 2010 to 2011 - although the IRS began in April 2009 there are a few minor issues with the the financial year 2009 to 2010 records which mean that while statistics at higher levels are robust some of the incident level records are not of a sufficient quality to publish. Incidents are allocated to calendar year depending on the time of the call, which is usually collected through automatic systems, so for example an incident where the call was made at 23.59 on March 31st 2010 but the incident was closed at 01.34 on April 1st 2010 would be allocated to the financial year 2009 to 2010 not the financial year 2010 to 2011. It should be noted that figures for 2010 will be lower, because only records from 1 April 2010 are included in the dataset.

Variable Name: MONTH
Variable Description: The month the incident took place
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

The month the incident took place. This would return “December” for 25 December 2015.

Variable Name: MONTH_CODE
Variable Description: A code to help users analyse data
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

Because the month variable is not in chronological order when sorted this code has been added. Month 1 is January, month 2 is February, for instance. This would return “12” for 25 December 2015.

Variable Name: DAY
Variable Description: The day of the month the incident took place
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

The day of the month the incident took place. This would return “25” for 25 December 2015.

Variable Name: DATE
Variable Description: The date the incident took place
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

The date the incident took place. This would return “25/12/2015” for 25 December 2015.

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3. Variable by variable - the fire

Variable Name: OUTDOOR_LOCATION_TYPE
Variable Description: The location type of the incident
IRS Question: 3.2

The outdoor fires dataset includes derelict buildings. Some categories have been combined for personal data reasons and others for ease of use.

The categories are:

• domestic garden, nurseries or market garden
• dwelling
• grassland, woodland and crops
• loose refuse
• other building
• other outdoor structure
• other outdoors
• other outdoors (including land)
• outdoor equipment and machinery
• outdoor structures
• park, playground or recreational area
• post box or telephone box
• road vehicle
• small refuse/rubbish container or wheelie bin
• wasteland

Variable Name: IS_PRIMARY_FIRE
Variable Description: Whether the incident was defined as a primary fire
IRS Question: 3.1, 3.2, 3.5, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9 (based on)

Primary fires are defined as fires that meet at least one of the following conditions:

(a) any fire that occurred in a (non-derelict) building, vehicle or outdoor structure
(b) any fire involving fatalities, casualties or rescues
(c) any fire attended by five or more pumping appliances.

Variable Name: ACCIDENTAL_OR_DELIBERATE
Variable Description: Whether the incident was recorded as an accidental or deliberate fire
IRS Question: 5.15

A deliberate fire is a fire believed to have been started deliberately such as suspected arson and some fires started by children, psychiatric patients, suicides and attempted suicides. Accidental fires include those where the motive was recorded as “not known”. Whilst we would not expect the fires for “deliberate fires” to match precisely the published figures for arson in the tables from the Crime in England and Wales statistical release, we would expect deliberate fires for dwellings, ‘other buildings’ and vehicles to be similar to the arson figures.

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4. Variable by variable - outcomes

Variable Name: OUTDOOR_DAMAGE_AREA_DESCRIPTION
Variable Description: The estimated fire damage in square metres.
IRS Question: 5.16, 8.35

The estimated fire damage in square metres, using bands.

Due to an inconsistency in the way the IRS stores this information from different FRSs, this variable is published as ‘not known’ for fires in outdoor structures (OUTDOOR_LOCATION TYPE: Small refuse/rubbish container or wheelie bin, Post box or Telephone box, Other outdoor structure, Large refuse/rubbish container (for example, skip)’ Other outdoor items including roadside furniture, Railings, Refuse/rubbish tip, Common external bin storage area, Fence, Outdoor storage, Recycling collection point, bottle bank).

Variable Name: OUTDOOR_DAMAGE_AREA_CODE
Variable Description: The estimated fire damage in square metres.
IRS Question: 5.16, 8.35

As some of the options in the outdoor damage are variable contain letters (for example, ‘up to 5 metres’), this code has been added after feedback from users to aid analysis.

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