Fall in big blazes but rise in festive mishaps

Rundown of incidents

Fire chiefs in Perth have marked a “less than dramatic” last month of the year around Perth and Kinross.

In a report summarising December 1 to January 3 of this year, there were only three major incidents requiring Scottish Fire and Rescue Service action, no fatal fire casualties and just one death in a ‘special service’ incident, where fire crews helped other emergency services.

The vast majority of the 185 fire related incidents judged to be ‘low level’ and accidental (37) fires rather than deliberate (7).

Christmas saw 22 fire mishaps, an increase of 27 per cent over this festive period compared to the last five years.

The SFRS noted that since the tragic fire at the Cameron House Hotel at Loch Lomond, precautions had been taken across Perth and Kinross to boost prevention efforts.

Since the Grenfell tower block fire in London, council new builds were all to have sprinkler systems automatically made part of the planning and a programme of retro-fitting had started for county high-rise blocks and social housing generally.

During December, there were 36 SFRS ‘Special Service’ callouts, nearly half of these were to road traffic collisions.

Cooking fires continue to be the biggest cause of fire crew callouts, with the vast majority occurring around 10am or at the peak frying time of the day, around 5pm as the county begins their evening meal.

Of all the domestic fire casualties there had been no fatalities and only one person had needed to be taken to hospital, an elderly person who had suffered from smoke inhalation. This was the lowest number of hospital casualties for the last five years.

Fires at commercial premises were occurring at their lowest level for five years, but of the four commercial incidents one building was completely destroyed. And false alarms were going down month on month, 77% of these were due to faulty equipment.

Chimney fires were an issue as more homes in Perthshire now had woodburning stoves and required residents to keep the chimneys clean.