Every single rescue operation is about minimizing damage and ultimately saving lives, and hopefully, every single driver strives to reduce response time. For the rescue driver, with his specific knowledge and experience, it’s natural to reflect upon the matter from a local perspective. But, if we look at it from a general perspective; how many operations are there actually that may have response time reduced? Let’s have a look at some numbers.
Small or big populated country?
If we look at the Netherlands, a small and densely populated country, in the period of 2003-2013 the average number of fire brigade actions was approximately 24 thousand per year. (https://www.statista.com/statistics/547583/netherlands-total-number-of-fire-brigade-actions/)
In a big country like the US, for the last 25 years more than 43 million fires were reported and responded to by public fire departments. That’s approximately 1.7 million fire operations per year. (https://www.statista.com/statistics/203760/total-number-of-reported-fires-in-the-united-states/)
“1.7 million fire operations – in the US only…”
Even if there is no reliable global statistics available, these figures indicate that the total number of fire operations in the world is immense, and likewise, the potential for reducing the total aggregated response time is immense.
Reducing response time by all possible means
Of course, local conditions around the world vary considerably. Accordingly, also the potential and means for reducing response time vary. Icy roads, for example, is a completely unknown condition in parts of the world and there are rescue drivers who have never been delayed by dense traffic.
No matter where in the world, if all rescue drivers scrutinise what may cause delays and find out a solution to the problem, I’m convinced there is a great potential for reducing response time – and ultimately saving more lives.
Do you want to know more about reducing response time? Read the blogpost How to shorten your response time in rescue driving, and download the document Response time – a challenge for the rescue driver.
