There are well over 50,000 fires in homes in Britain every year - that's nearly 140 a day.

Over the last quarter of a century, the number of deaths from fire has come down; in 1979 there were 896 deaths in England and Wales from fire. By 2001, this had fallen to 492.

Children are also casualities. The figures below show injuries and deaths of 1-16 year olds over a four year period.

While the number of deaths from fire is going down, the number of injuries has increased; from 7,600 in 1979 to around 14,800 in 2001 (or 10,000 excluding precautionary check-ups - that is, where there was no obvious sign of injury). The overall cost of fire to the economy of England and Wales, estimated at almost £7 billion, is enormous.

The role of the fire and rescue service has expanded over the past 25 years. In 1979 the fire service responded to around 85,000 non-fire incidents. By March 2001 this figure had increased to 180,000. This expansion of the role of the fire and rescue service is understandable. It is also right. The fire and rescue service has, over the years, acquired a wide and sophisticated range of equipment to enable it to respond better to such incidents. For example, the fire and rescue service has much expertise in the safe extraction of road traffic accident victims.

Firesetters

Starting a fire deliberately is a crime.

If you want to play with fire, the simulator above is as close as you need to get.

Fire service info shows that there has been a continued increase in the number of deliberate fires attended by the fire service.

In 1989, there were 38,700 fires started deliberately, representing about one-quarter of all primary fires. By 1999, this had risen to a total of 91,000 deliberately set fires - an increase of 135%.

A large proportion of the increase is attributable to deliberate car fires as this category has increased by almost 200% since 1989. Over the same period, this compares with increases of 39% in deliberate fires in other buildings; 54% in dwellings and 65% in other outdoor fires.