STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF FIRES IN PRODUCTION AND STORAGE BUILDINGS IN POLAND

Abstract

This article presents a statistical analysis performed on the official fire data set for the period from2010 to mid-2022, obtained from the State Fire Service Headquarters for research purposes. Thearticle analysed the obtained data in terms of: the frequency of fires and their area, the numberof people injured, fire losses and their characteristics in relation to the distance from rescue andfirefighting units, the fire brigade forces and resources used, the amount of water used and thecharacteristics of travel times. The conducted analysis indicates that fires in production andwarehouse buildings are a significant problem in Poland due to constantly increasing losses.Very large and large fires are of particular concern because their contribution to total lossesand resource use (water, vehicles, and personnel) keeps increasing. The high and growing waterconsumption is worrying, especially in terms of its significant shortage and the consequences ofgroundwater contamination. In terms of the amount of loss, the short distance of the fire site fromthe fire brigade is often not decisive when the fire develops quickly or notification is delayed, whichsupports the conclusion that self-extinguishing should be deployed more often in buildings wherethe fire is expected to spread quickly and large fire losses are likely.