More alarm call-outs fire services in 2015

© ANP

Fire stations received a total of 234 thousand reported incidents in 2015, slightly more than in 2014. Over half of these cases were fire emergencies, the remainder were requests for assistance. The number of call-outs fire services received after a request for assistance grew by 14 percent last year, according to figures released today by Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

Of the 234 thousand incidents received last year by fire station control rooms, 152 thousand led to actual call-outs for the fire brigade, slightly more (1.5 percent) than the previous year. Over one-third of these cases were dealt with by the control rooms themselves, roughly the same as in 2014.

Fire services call-outs 2015

Summer storm led to more calls

In 2015, the number of call-outs for fire services during a request for assistance went up by 14 percent to 67 thousand. A peak was seen in the third quarter especially, due mainly to the heavy summer storm of 25 July. During that quarter, the number of call-outs to fire services was nearly 25 percent up from the same period in 2014.

Most requests for assistance in Amsterdam-Amstelland

Last year, fire services in the safety region of Amsterdam-Amstelland were called out most frequently by the control room after a request for assistance, 8.3 thousand times in total. The number of emergency calls was relatively the highest in this region with 8.3 calls per 1,000 inhabitants. In the safety region of Brabant-Noord, fire services were called least frequently, slightly over 2 times per in  every 1,000 inhabitants.

Number of assistance call-outs for fire services

Fewer fire call-outs

The number of times control rooms had to call the fire brigade for fire emergencies went down from over 91 thousand in 2014 to 85 thousand last year, a decline of almost 7 percent. There were fewer reports from automatic alarm devices (-5.1 Thousand) in particular. In addition, control rooms were able to deal with a larger share themselves.

Throughout the years, fire call-outs present a fairly similar pattern. The fire brigade is called out relatively more often in the first and last quarter of the year, especially around New Year’s Eve. The number of call-outs is lowest in the second quarter, rising again after the summer.

Number of fire call-outs for fire services

Most fire service call-outs in Rotterdam-Rijnmond

The number of fire call-outs was highest in the safety region  of Rotterdam-Rijnmond: nearly 9.3 thousand. Fire services in the region of Gooi en Vechtstreek were called out least frequently. Relative to the number of inhabitants, Kennemerland (North Holland province) had the highest number of call-outs, namely 7.8 in each 1,000 inhabitants. The lowest frequency was seen in the Brabant-Noord region (3.3 in 1,000 inhabitants).

Call-outs fire services by safety region 2015