10 actions that will improve Fire Safety in Europe

Each year in the European Union fire deaths total around 5,000 with ten times that many injuries, according to conservative estimates. When it comes to fire, special attention needs to be paid to Europe’s growing vulnerable community. The measures taken must include a combination of influencing fire-safe behaviour, initiating the application of technical provisions such as early detection and automatic extinguishing, and implementing building regulations that fit the requirements of the (vulnerable) risk groups.

The time to escape in case of a fire is decreasing while more and more people need more time to escape. Measures need to be taken to improve the available time to escape in case of a fire. These measures must include the introduction of a EU-wide standard for fire-safe upholstered furniture and mattresses, the broad application of smoke detectors and the evaluation and improvement of the functioning of Lower Ignition Propensity (LIP) cigarettes.

Fire safety needs to be seen as an essential aspect of the energy transition. To achieve this, more awareness must be created and more investments need to be made in knowledge, tools and competencies to ensure the fi re safety of the new forms of energy, the new forms of transportation
and circular construction.

More awareness of fi re safety is needed. This needs to be established primarily through Community Fire Safety projects, such as awareness campaigns. To make these projects more effective, research has to be done on how to positively influence fire-safe behaviour.

Although data is collected on almost everything, there is no EU-wide data on residential fi res. As such data forms the foundation of a more fire safe Europe, the pilot project launched by the EU should be followed-up as soon as possible and eventually, the data must be integrated within Eurostat.

Essential to a more fire safe Europe is EU-wide communication and collaboration. This must include sharing (and connecting) good initiatives and best practices with each other and realising a broad application of innovations. Doing so must involve giving more room to other actors within the FIEP (such as the Fire Rescue Services) and focussing the FIEP on the exchange of knowledge and innovation in fire safety, with vulnerable citizens as its most important target group.