Birmingham Fire Reduction Annual Report 2005-07
Fire impacts on the lives of many people in Birmingham every year. Accidental dwelling fires can affect people directly, causing homes to become damaged and uninhabitable, creating personal injury and occasionally death. Arson is a crime that not only damages personal property, but more importantly, can disrupt education and employment. Since 2005 the Birmingham Fire Reduction Partnership has promoted fire reduction in Birmingham to complement the work of West Midlands Fire Service.
The joint vision of council and fire officers in 2001 saw the fire service become a partner in Birmingham’s first Local Public Service Agreement to reduce accidental house fires. This subsequently led to a performance reward grant from government and the creation of the Birmingham Fire Reduction Partnership. Since 2005 funding from the reward grant has been reinvested in fire reduction measures, for example: community advocates have worked to ensure members of our community most at risk have smoke alarms; a group of most vulnerable residents are now protected by a sprinkler system and several hundred cars have been removed from the city’s streets to reduce vehicle arson. These measures have made Birmingham a safer and cleaner place.
The Birmingham Fire Reduction Partnership is an exemplar of partnership working. At a strategic level the fire service, the police and the council have developed a clearer understanding of each organisation’s priorities. And, more notably, strong relationships have developed at an operational level where officers work closely together, jointly resourcing interventions and using local knowledge to identify members of the community most at risk and targeting work in neighbourhoods where fire issues are prominent.
I am pleased to state that the fire reduction targets set in the second Local Public Service Agreement have now all been achieved and it is the intention of the Birmingham Fire Reduction Partnership to continue its work in 2008 and beyond.
This report details the origins of the Birmingham Fire Reduction Partnership, its work since 2005 and our intentions for the future. It is an area of activity and a body of work with which I am proud to be associated.
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(The document has been split into two parts due to the file size)