Coronavirus: Northern Irish house fires leap by 49% during lockdown prompting fire brigade to warn – ‘Be vigilant’

The remarkable surge coincided with the government’s insistence that people work from home and generally try not to leave the confines of the house, unless for an extremely limited number of reasons.

But while domestic call-outs surged, the overall number of 999 calls and incidents which fire crews were summoned to has been broadly the same so far in springtime 2020 as it was in spring of 2019.

It is likely this is due to fewer fires or alarms being triggered in offices or factories.

In addition a spokesman for the fire brigade said there was notable fall in road collisions firefighters were summoned to, as well as the number of “rope rescues” (where firefighters have to save people who have become trapped after a fall, for example).

In terms of raw data, the number of calls received from March 2 to April 19 this year was 4,579. This compared with 4,574 calls received from March 4 to April 21 in 2019.

In terms of “mobilised incidents” (incidents which firefighters attended), from March 2 to April 19 this year there were 2,982.

This too is strikingly similar to the 2,972 mobilised incidents from March 4 to April 21 in 2019.

The fire brigade said in a statement: “Since the beginning of the Covid–19 period (March 2 to April 19) we have attended a similar number of incidents when compared to the same time period last year.

“However, we have seen a marked difference in the types of incidents we have responded to. As the community is spending most of their time indoors, there has been a sharp increase in the number of accidental fires in the home.

“House fires in March 2020 were 49% higher than in March 2019.”

It went on to say that firefighters have also been kept busy by a number of gorse fires in recent weeks, with firefighters summoned to 138 in the week from April 13 to 19 .

This was up from 78 gorse fires the week before (it did not give any figures for gorse fires in 2019).

Earlier this week, two huge gorse blazes to the south-west of Ballycastle occupied scores of firefighters, with smoke visible as far away as Antrim town.

The statement concluded: “Thanks to our planning, the changes we have made to how we deliver our service, and the hard work of our people, Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service is well placed to continue protecting our community during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“However, we are calling on the public to help us by being especially aware of home fire safety, and not starting deliberate fires in the countryside.”

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