PELASTUSLAITOSTEN KUMPPANUUSVERKOSTO www.pelastuslaitokset.fi

RESCUE DEPARTMENTS OF FINLAND

Measurement of impact of

prevention activities

Fire inspection &

Measuring effectiveness

Vesa-Pekka Tervo Director of Risk management

Keski-Uusimaa

Kati Tillander Research manager Helsinki

&

PELASTUSLAITOSTEN KUMPPANUUSVERKOSTO www.pelastuslaitokset.fi

Background • Rescue Act was revised in year 2011. One major change was reform of the

fire inspection system. We moved from regulated fire inspections to risk

based inspection schemes.

• Objectives of the reform were to enhance enforcement and improve quality

and efficiency of fire inspections.

• Risk-based targeting of prevention activities requires continuous monitoring

of the environment as well as assessment of the effectivity of the actions.

• The main idea is to target the activities in a way, which minimizes the total

risk of an area.

• Currently we are developing a common method for evaluation of fire

inspection activities. It will be a tool that Rescue Services can use to

evaluate their fire inspection programmes and to determine how to develop

their work.

Follow-up

Planning

Implementation

Effectiveness

Evaluation of

fire inspection

policy

Risk-based plan for fire

inspection activities • Rescue Act requires that local Rescue Authorities have a

risk based enforcement plan that is reviewed annually.

• Main part of the enforcement plan is the fire

inspection programme.

• When is the planning evaluated the focus is

on the contents of the plan and especially

on the extent of it.

• In evaluation prosess e.g. the following

details are consider:

– Allocation of fire inspection activities

and the principles of the allocation.

– The use of resources.

– Description of systematical co-operation with other

authorities.

– How the quality and effectiveness of enforcement

activities are assessed and measured.

Description

of quality and

effectivity

assesment

Based on risk

analysis

Resources

Co-operation

Implementation

• In this phase the implemented measures are

compared to planned.

• Have we really done what we planned

to do?

• Measuring the implementation includes

e.g.:

– Volume (Output)

– Use of the resources

– Actual co-operation with other

authorities

– Quality

• Customer satisfaction

• Self-assessment of the Fire

Inspector

• Appropriate documentation

Quality

Volume

(Output)

Resources

Co-operation

Purpose of fire inspections

If we want to measure the effectivity, we need to have a clear

understanding (and opinion) of what is the precise target of the fire

inspection?

– Is it supervision of Rescue Act compliance, lower probability of

accidents and fires, restriction of damages or better safety

culture (motivation, attitude, know-how e.g.) or something

else?

And is our main goal to concentrate

– to the high-risk objects or

– to the group of objects where we can, by using fire inspections

achieve actually a bigger change, which minimizes the risk of

an area ?

R I

S K

S

Effectiveness • Which is more important?

– To be able to reduce the risk more in a building, in which the level of

risk is already low or

– To be able to reduce the risk less in a building, in which the level of

risk is very high.

• If we want to measure the effectivity, we need to consider the following:

– What is the current state of safety of the inspected objects?

– The goals for effectivity need to be set. What do we want to achieve?

– What are the methods used to achieve the goals?

– Then we seek to measure how we have achived the goals set using

the chosen methods.

• It is not necessarily possible to distinguish which part of the change is

caused by fire authorities and what is the influence of other factors. How

much does it matter?

Assesment of effectiveness

• However, we should try to measure the

things to which we actually try to

influence with the fire inspections.

• All the problems introduced are not yet

completely solved. In this first phase the

effectivity is measured based on:

– Data collected during the fire

inspections

– Accident statistics

Accident statistics

Data collected during

the fire inspections

Evaluation of the risk level • Rescue Departments are using

risk estimation models.

• Risk estimation covers at least:

– fire safety management

– risk assessment procedures

– fire safety installations

– emergency plans and other

documents

– training and information

procedures

– structural fire safety

• It is assumed that by concentrating to these aspects, the fire safety and self-

preparedness is promoted.

• By following the changes of these aspects, the changes of the fire safety and

self-preparedness can be recognized. By measuring these, also a view of the

risk profile of a region is obtained and may be followed.

– Feedback from the customer

(customers assessment of the

effectivity). This is analysed

with the information of the

risk level estimate made by

the fire inspector.

– Feedback from the fire

inspector (fire inspectors

assessment of the risk level,

effectivity of the inspection

and co-operation with other

authorities).

– Changes in the risk levels of objects.

– Follow-up of the enforcement notices Rescue Authority has issued.

Data collected during the

fire inspections:

Accident statistics

– Changes in the ignition frequency

[1/m2a] or [1/building*a] of different

building types.

– Changes in the damaged area by

fire [m2] or accumulated value [€]

of the building and property loss.

Optional alternatives

Ignition frequency

Damaged area or €

− Optional alternative (e.g.

regional theme; Changes in the causes of ignition / by classifying the use of buildings).

Summary Planning

Implementation

Effectiveness

• The first version of the

model is released at the

end of this year.

• The model is not ready and needs to be

continuously improved.

• Restrictions in data collection and utilisation possibilities poses

challenges to the measurement of effectivity.

• We hope to overcome the challenges in the coming years as the

data collection systems are renewed.

PELASTUSLAITOSTEN KUMPPANUUSVERKOSTO www.pelastuslaitokset.fi

2014

RESCUE DEPARTMENTS OF FINLAND

Vesa-Pekka Tervo Director of Risk management

Keski-Uusimaa vesa-pekka.tervo@ku-pelastus.fi

Kati Tillander Research manager Helsinki kati.tillander@hel.fi

&