Meta-analysis of UK, USA and New Zealand fire statistics databases with respect to damage and financial loss

The optimization of structures for fire is a growing area of research and practice, however much of the optimization is conducted with respect to life safety and not with property damage. Resilience optimization of structures for fire events represents an evolution from pure life safety objectives. Fire statistics provide information that can fill the knowledge gap related to the response and damage of real buildings to real fires. From damage, it is easy to correlate the direct financial loss, which estimates the consequences caused to structures by fires. Different countries have developed individual fire statistics databases and reporting structures, which can give detailed description of fire incidents divided by different property types, but also the structural damage exhibited by the buildings and the strict relation with the financial loss. The paper presents an analysis of three such fire statistic databases: IRS of the UK, NFIRS in USA and one produced by the New Zealand Fire Service looking specifically at the relationship between damage and financial losses.