Fires at 46 year low in Croydon (From Croydon Guardian)

Fires at 46 year low in Croydon

11:50am Sunday 2nd September 2012 in Local news By Nick Hitchens

The number of fires breaking out across the borough has fallen dramatically during the past decade, new figures reveal.

Information provided by the London Fire Brigade show there were around three fires a day reported across Croydon last year, a drop from more than five in 2001.

Across the capital, the number of blazes has more than halved over the last decade and is now at its lowest point since the last time England won the World Cup.

Chris Bigland, the Brigade’s borough commander for Croydon, said: “These figures show that people in Croydon are less likely to have a fire than ever before and local residents are far safer as a result.

"The London Fire Brigade has worked incredibly hard to make the borough safer. Using a sophisticated approach, it has targeted those people who are more likely to have a fire and provided them with potentially life saving advice and smoke alarms."

In 2001 there were 1,977 fire reported, but this has fallen to 1,179 in 2011, a drop of more than a third.

Similarly the number of overall incidents the fire department is called out, including road accidents, false alarms and floods, has fallen by 30 per cent from 5,627 to 4,041.

Commander Bigland said: “People in Croydon are really benefitting from the hard work of our of firefighters. However, whilst the borough has become a safer place there is no room for complacency.

“Brigade chiefs are committed to keeping local residents even safer, not least by preventing fires from happening in the first place.”