125 - Enhancing Fire Safety Through Data: EU FireStat Project with Martina Manes and Mohamad El Houssami

Today we go deep into how statistical data about fires is gathered, processed, and used around the world, and what are the ideas on how to improve this in the future. My guests represent the EU FireStat Project - Dr Mohamad El Houssami from Effectis and Dr Martina Manes from the University of Liverpool.

EU FireStat is a groundbreaking initiative that aims to fill data gaps and foster cross-European collaborations in the field of fire safety. The conversation takes a deep dive into the necessity for comparable fire statistics across Europe, illustrating the challenges that come with harmonizing terminology and data collection methods. We bring to light how these discrepancies between countries can influence the way we interpret vital definitions, like fires,  fire deaths, or injuries. We also discuss the role of the quality assurance process in shaping the data and dissect the eight variables identified as a tier one priority in the EU FireStat Project survey.

If you would like to read about the EU FireStat Project, all the reports (including the final report) are available here.

If you would like to read the peer-reviewed version of their findings, please go for the papers:

• Closing Data Gaps and Paving the Way for Pan-European Fire Safety Efforts: Part I—Overview of Current Practices for Fire Statistics
• Closing Data Gaps and Paving the Way for Pan-European Fire Safety Efforts: Part II—Terminology of Fire Statistical Variables

And while we wait for the pan-European fire statistics database, you may want to look into statistics gathered by the CTIF Center for World Fire Statistics.

Fire Science Show is produced in partnership with OFR Consultants.