In Australia, domestic home fires are one of the leading causes of death, Injury and property damage of any occurrence statistically recorded. The following statistics provide valuable insight into the effects of fire in the residential home in Australia. The following statistics are provided through the 2010 Report on Government Services which covers the period 2007 – 2009:

• 98 fire deaths outlined
• 3378 hospital admissions due to fire injury
• 21% of fire deaths in 2005 were persons under the age of 14 years
• 112,033 genuine fires were attended by fire services
• 13,752 full time fire fighters employed in the industry
• $3 billion dollars plus of funding provided 

Nationally, there were 98 fire deaths in 2007 which is an unfortunate and in many cases avoidable statistic. Furthermore, in 2007-08, there were 3378 hospital admissions due to fire injury.

In the year to June 30^th 2009, there were 112,033 genuine fire incidents attended to by fire service organisations nationally in Australia, with a further 200,000 other instances requiring fire service attendance. Of this statistic, 7.9 per cent of all households experienced a major emergency in this period.  

The cost to service the demand of the fire service organisations was greater than $3.0 billion in 2008-09. This included employing 17,833 full time equivalent paid personnel of which 13,752 full time equivalent employees or 77.1 per cent of these were paid fire fighters.

Of the 112,033 genuine fire incidents the most significant factors reported that caused a fire instance were:

• unattended heat sources (15.0 per cent)
• short-circuit, ground fault and other electrical failure (10.5 per cent)

A major consideration when assessing the effectiveness of domestic sprinkler systems is the statistic where fire instances contained to the room of origin was 56.9 per cent in 2008 – 2009. In the Scottsdale case study detailed in Section 10, where domestic sprinkler systems are mandatory, 92% of fires with sprinkler systems were limited to the room of origin.