I read an article in the firelighter which was published in the Insurers Times on the 7th December 2006 and was called “Claims up in Flames - The fire service's reluctance to pour resources into commercial property blazes means insurers are being forced to re-think their insurance cover decisions.”
The following is a couple of quotes from the article.
“National service standards based on property (from the 1947 act) were scrapped in favour of local Integrated Risk Management Plans (IRMPs) based on saving lives. Many of these resulted in brigades sending smaller appliances or, in the first instance, just an observer, to commercial fires where no lives were at immediate risk. Some also claim as many as 90% of automated fire alarm calls are false alarms so reduce their response as a result.”
“But insurers are concerned that they are starting to see more large losses and more total losses than they used to. “In some cases, such as for shopping centres and hospitals, the situation has improved but industrial estates overnight are less well served. We are sensing and this is a market thing that more fires now result in total losses:’ says Hutchins.”
It was published in the April edition of the Firefighter and will be available on the FBU website in the near future.
It is obviously a concern to the insurance companies and I think it may be of interest to the fire safety community because the overall message of the article, which is, the initial attendance to commercial premises has been greatly reduced. Consequently those who are conducting a FRA and the strategy include the assumption of a quick and effective response by the local FRS, may not be the case.
