Communities and Local Government
A selection of images representing communities.
Direct contact 020 7944 4400- contactus@communities.gov.uk
- Fire and resilience
- About fire and resilience
About fire and resilience
Local fire services are run by locally accountable Fire and Rescue Authorities run by elected Members. We work closely with them to prevent deaths, injuries and damage to property caused by fire.
Our target is to reduce accidental fire-related deaths in the home by 20 per cent and arson by 10 per cent by 31 March 2010. We are currently on course to meet that target. There were 228 deaths due to accidental fires in the home between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2006 compared with 232 in the previous year - a reduction of 2 per cent.
We have made available £11.4m in grants for Fire and Rescue Authorities to support fire prevention work in 2006-8. We encourage Fire and Rescue Authorities to get more closely involved with communities to promote fire prevention. There are new services for the public like home fire safety checks and a new Fire Gateway portal allows people to request services via the internet.
Resilience
We are also working to make sure the UK is equipped to deal with major emergencies, like terror attacks or natural disasters. We do this by providing support, equipment and training to the fire and rescue service.
With other Government departments we support regional and local organisations to develop emergency planning through multi-agency forums with the police, ambulance service and others.
In this section you can find out more about:
- Community Fire Safety - how we are working to reduce the deaths, injuries and damage wreaked by fires, including the nationwide Fire Kills campaign.
- Resilience - how we prepare for a major emergency on the scale of 9/11 or the July 7 London bombings. Find out about our £200 million programme to improve the fire and rescue service's capacity to respond.
For more general information about the work of the fire and rescue services please visit the Fire Gateway (external link).
Explore these fire and resilience pages for detailed reports on our initiatives and work with the fire and rescue service, plus research and consultation papers supporting our work. There are links to other relevant departments and organisations, including the Home Office, Regional Co-ordination Unit and Security Service (MI5).
