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Report on Government Services 2019

Part D, Chapter 9

9 Emergency services for fire and other events

The focus of performance reporting in this chapter is on emergency services for fire events. Descriptive information is included on emergency services for other events, with performance reporting to be developed for future Reports.

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  • Key Facts
  • Indicator Framework
  • Indicator Results

The focus of performance reporting in this chapter is on emergency services for fire events. Descriptive information is included on emergency services for other events, with performance reporting to be developed for future Reports.

Nationally in 2017-18:

  • fire service organisations attended a total of 387 939 emergency incidents, of which 100 227 were fire event incidents, and STES organisations attended a total of 52 310 incidents (excludes Queensland), of which 39 933 were storm and cyclone events
  • total expenditure of fire service organisations was $4.2 billion and of STES was $228.9 million (excluding Western Australia), or $169 and $9 respectively, per person in the population
  • 20 297 full time equivalent (FTE) paid personnel were employed by fire service organisations, of which 77.0 per cent were paid firefighters. A large number of volunteer firefighters (156 319 people) also participated in the delivery of fire services
  • the majority of STES staff were volunteers, with  731 paid staff (excluding Western Australia) and 23 987 volunteers.

Emergency services for fire and other events aim to reduce the adverse effects of events on the community (including people, property, infrastructure, economy and environment).

Governments’ involvement is aimed at providing emergency services that:

  • contribute to the communities management of risks and its preparedness, through the promotion of risk reduction and mitigation activities
  • are accessible, responsive and sustainable.

Governments aim for emergency services to meet these objectives in an equitable and efficient manner.

The performance indicator framework provides information on equity, efficiency and effectiveness, and distinguishes the outputs and outcomes of emergency services for fire events. The performance indicator framework shows which data are complete and comparable in the 2019 Report.

Indicator framework

An overview of the Emergency services for fire and other events performance indicator results are presented. Information to assist the interpretation of these data can be found in the indicator interpretation boxes in the Emergency services for fire and other events chapter and attachment tables.

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Equity — Access indicators

Response times by geographic location

Response times, including call taking time at 90th percentile, by remoteness area, 2017-18 (minutes)

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable but are complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
Major cities 9.5 9.2 11.7 11.2 11.1 .. 11.3 .. ..
Inner regional 16.5 14.8 13.2 20.9 31.3 14.5 .. .. ..
Outer regional 21.0 18.7 13.4 21.6 22.9 24.4 .. 15.2 ..
Remote 19.6 np 16.9 28.0 19.7 19.7 .. 16.7 ..
Very remote 23.2 .. 17.2 33.4 60.3 29.2 .. 60.8 ..
Source: Attachment table 9A.14

Effectiveness — Response indicators

Response times

State-wide response times, at 90th percentile, 2017-18 (minutes)

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable but are complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
Including call taking time 13.5 11.0 12.3 15.5 15.0 20.4 11.3 17.6 ..
Excluding call taking time 11.2 9.6 11.6 14.1 14.0 9.8 10.1 11.7 ..
Source: Attachment tables 9A.14-15

Effectiveness — Prevention/mitigation indicators

Accidental residential structure fires per 100 000 households, 2017-18

Most recent data for this measure are comparable and complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
no. 103.3 108.4 54.9 57.7 81.2 125.8 71.4 66.0 87.6
Source: Attachment table 9A.12

Proportion of building fires confined to room of origin, all ignition types, 2017-18

Most recent data for this measure are comparable and complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
% 79.6 72.9 71.0 70.3 67.6 56.4 75.0 80.2 ..
Source: Attachment table 9A.9

Effectiveness — Preparedness indicators

Proportion of households with a smoke alarm/smoke detector, 2017-18

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable nor complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
Households with a smoke alarm/detector installed 95.6 97.2 97.1 na na na na na na
Households with a smoke alarm/detector that is operational/has been tested in the last 12 months na na 79.9 na na na na na na
Source: Attachment table 9A.13

Effectiveness — Sustainability indicators

Firefighter workforce

Most recent data for these measures are not comparable across jurisdictions but are complete, subject to caveats

Workforce under 50 years of age, 2017-18

 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
% 64.3 63.4 59.6 67.0 58.0 65.5 62.3 77.6 63.2

Workforce attrition (the number of FTE employees who exit the organisation as a proportion of the number of FTE employees), 2017-18

 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
% 1.2 4.0 3.4 4.0 2.9 2.7 6.3 5.3 3.8
Source: Attachment table 9A.6

Efficiency indicators

Fire services expenditure per person

Fire service organisations' expenditure per person, 2017-18

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable but are complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
$ 139.41 226.87 133.80 161.93 180.80 181.56 216.34 241.11 169.24
Source: Attachment table 9A.16

Outcome indicators

Fire death rate

Fire death rate, per million people, 2017

Most recent data for this measure are comparable and complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
no. 4.2 2.7 2.2 4.3 4.6 19.2 32.5 3.6
Source: Attachment table 9A.7

Fire injury rate

Rate of hospital admissions due to fire injury, per 100 000 people, 2016-17

Most recent data for this measure are comparable and complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
no. 13.3 10.6 15.5 18.0 18.2 20.2 10.1 69.8 14.7
Source: Attachment table 9A.8

Value of asset losses from fire events

Total value of fire event household insurance claims per person, 2017-18

Most recent data for this measure are comparable and complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
$ 26.16 24.47 20.75 15.87 19.60 56.61 11.84 3.45 23.28
Source: Attachment table 9A.10

Notes

These data and caveats for these data are available in chapter 9 and attachment 9A.

na Not available. .. Not applicable. – Nil or rounded to zero.