Report on Government Services 2018

Part D, Chapter 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.

Download the chapter

Key Facts
Indicator Framework
Indicator Results

Nationally in 2016-17:

fire service organisations attended a total of 394 054 emergency incidents, of which 95 508 were fire event incidents, and STES organisations attended a total of 77 832 incidents (excludes Queensland), of which 62 157 were storm and cyclone events
total expenditure of fire service organisations was $4.1 billion and of STES was $222.8 million, or $167 and $9 respectively, per person in the population
20 008 full time equivalent (FTE) paid personnel were employed by fire service organisations, of which 76.9 per cent were paid firefighters. A large number of volunteer firefighters (152 883 people) also participated in the delivery of fire services
the majority of STES staff were volunteers, with 22 566 volunteers and 709 paid staff.

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 2018 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.

Expand all Collapse all

Equity — Access indicators

Response times by geographic area

Response times, including call taking time at 90th percentile, by remoteness area, 2016-17 (minutes)

Most recent data for these measures are not comparable but are complete, subject to caveats
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
Major cities	9.5	9.2	11.7	11.4	11.1	..	10.5	..	..
Inner regional	19.0	14.8	14.2	21.3	15.7	13.1	..	..	..
Outer regional	22.0	21.0	14.3	32.8	15.9	25.6	..	14.2	..
Remote	22.0	23.4	27.4	22.8	15.7	47.9	..	17.4	..
Very remote	25.4	..	16.6	26.4	na	24.1	..	29.0	..

Source: Attachment table 9A.14

Effectiveness — Response indicators

Response times

State-wide response times, at 90th percentile, 2016-17 (minutes)

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable but are complete, subject to caveats
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
Including call taking time	14.5	10.8	12.5	15.4	12.5	17.5	10.5	18.8	..
Excluding call taking time	11.1	9.4	12.0	14.0	14.1	16.7	9.1	12.0	..

Source: Attachment tables 9A.14-15

Effectiveness — Prevention/mitigation indicators

Fire risk prevention/mitigation activities

Accidental residential structure fires per 100 000 households, 2016-17

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable but are complete, subject to caveats
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
No.	97.3	90.0	59.6	65.0	80.3	111.7	87.0	67.2	82.9

Source: Attachment table 9A.12

Estimated percentage of households with a smoke alarm/detector, 2016-17

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable nor complete, subject to caveats
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
%	94.1	97.2	97.9	94.0	na	na	na	na	na

Source: Attachment table 9A.13

Confinement to room/object of origin

Proportion of building fires confined to room of origin, all ignition types, 2016-17

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable but are complete, subject to caveats
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
%	76.6	71.1	68.4	69.5	69.5	56.9	69.6	74.0	..

Source: Attachment table 9A.9

Effectiveness — Sustainability indicators

Firefighter workforce

Workforce under 50 years of age, 2016-17

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable but are complete, subject to caveats
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
%	65.5	62.5	61.1	61.9	59.7	65.4	61.7	76.0	63.2

Source: Attachment table 9A.6

Efficiency indicators

Fire services expenditure per person

Fire service organisations' expenditure per person, 2016-17

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable but are complete, subject to caveats
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
$	138.03	238.69	126.49	161.60	134.49	172.32	206.74	242.81	166.63

Source: Attachment table 9A.16

Outcome indicators

Fire death rate

Fire death rate, per million people, 2016

Most recent data for this measure are comparable and complete, subject to caveats
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
no.	3.1	4.0	5.4	3.8	3.5	5.8	7.6	–	4.0

Source: Attachment table 9A.7

Fire injury rate

Rate of hospital admissions due to fire injury, per 100 000 people, 2015-16

Most recent data for this measure are comparable and complete, subject to caveats
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
no.	13.1	9.4	16.0	14.3	19.6	21.6	9.4	76.2	14.3

Source: Attachment table 9A.8

Value of asset losses from fire events

Value of fire event household insurance claims per person, 2016-17

Most recent data for this measure are comparable and complete, subject to caveats
	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Aust
$	22.61	23.47	25.12	19.46	19.03	52.05	12.42	21.50	23.19

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.