EU Firestat variable cheat sheet

Quick reference for EU Firestat Tier 1/2 harmonised variables, fire-incident threshold, and HeatWaves mapping. Full definitions and value lists in eu-firestat-final-report.md.

EU Firestat variable cheat sheet

Compact reference for the EU FIRESTAT final report — eu-firestat-final-report.md (July 2022, project SI2.830108). For Norwegian source capabilities and cross-source mappings, see taxonomy-and-eu-firestat-alignment.md and category-values-by-source.md.

Fire incident threshold

A fire incident (minimum dataset scope) is a building fire where:

The fire service attended, confirmed fire (ongoing or extinguished), and
Resulting damage to people, property, or environment.

Damage means any of: injuries at scene, fatalities at scene, property damage ≥ €100, or environmental contamination requiring clean-up.

Fire = uncontrolled self-supporting flaming, glowing, or smouldering combustion. Explosions, static discharge, and self-immolation are excluded unless they lead to fire as defined above.

Terminology draws on ISO/TS 17755-2 (Fire safety — Statistical data collection — Part 2: Vocabulary).

Implementation tiers

Tier	When	Count
Tier 1	First priority — implement before Tier 2	8 variables (#1–#8)
Tier 2	After Tier 1 is efficient	6 variables (#9–#14)

Countries may collect additional variables in parallel; the tiers define the minimum harmonised European dataset.

Tier 1 variables (priority)

#	EU Firestat variable	Category group	Definition (summary)	HeatWaves
1	Number of fatalities	Human	Persons who died from fire-related injuries (within 1 year; ≥90 days acceptable per CTIF)	Not a chart dimension — aggregate outcome
2	Number of injuries	Human	Persons injured (not counted as deaths) from the fire incident	Not a chart dimension — aggregate outcome
3	Age of fatalities	Human	Age in years at time of fire; estimate when unknown	Not a chart dimension
4	Primary causal factor	Fire (cause)	Most important factor explaining why the item first ignited was exposed to the heat source long enough for uncontrolled combustion	`cause` (Årsak) — BRIS, BRASK
5	Type of building	Building	Eurostat construction classification (residential / non-residential / mixed-use / under construction)	`building_type` filter
6	Incident location	Incident	Coordinates, country, region, town, postal code, street (or country only if unknown)	`region_code` where ingested
7	Incident date	Incident	Earliest available moment of occurrence (`dd/mm/yyyy`)	`period_start` / time axis
8	Incident time	Incident	Earliest available moment (`hh:mm` 24h + timezone)	Sub-year grain where daily data exists

Tier 2 variables (second priority)

#	EU Firestat variable	Category group	Definition (summary)	HeatWaves
9	Number of floors	Building	Count above/below ground level (main entrance = ground)	Not ingested as standard dim
10	Area of origin	Fire	Localized area where the fire started	`POLITI_ARNESTED` (Arnested) — BRIS Police
11	Heat source	Fire	Source of energy initiating combustion in the item first ignited	`KILDE` (Tennkilde) — BRASK, BRIS
12	Item first ignited	Fire	First fuel with sufficient volume/intensity for self-supporting combustion	`OBJEKT` — BRIS Police
13	Articles contributing to fire development	Fire	Article(s) assessed to significantly contribute beyond the item first ignited (multi-select; only if fire spread)	Not a primary HeatWaves chart axis
14	Fire safety measures present	Building	Detection, alarm, extinguishing, passive protection, smoke control — present and operated?	Not ingested as standard dim

Numbering schemes (Scheme A vs Scheme B)

The same 14 variables appear in eu-firestat-final-report.md with two different global index orderings. This is not two competing definitions — chapter 4 defines each variable once. Later chapters reordered Tier 1 (incident date/time/location before age and PCF) and swapped Tier 2 items 4–5 (articles vs item first ignited), which shifts the # labels.

Variable	Scheme A (Exec Summary, Rec 3, §3.3)	Scheme B (§11.2, §12 conclusions)
Primary causal factor	4	7
Area of origin	10	10
Heat source	11	11
Item first ignited	12	13
Articles contributing to fire development	13	12

HeatWaves canonical choice: Scheme A — exported as FIRE_CHARACTERISTICS / EU_FIRESTAT_VARIABLE_NUM in lib/data-model/eu-firestat-variable-numbers.ts. Do not mix #7 / #13 into UI or docs unless explicitly discussing §11–§12’s implementation list.

Category groups (Table 1)

Group	Variables
Incident characteristics	Date, time, location
Human characteristics	Fatalities, injuries, age of fatalities
Building characteristics	Type of building, number of floors, fire safety measures
Fire characteristics	Area of origin, item first ignited, articles contributing to development, heat source, primary causal factor

Primary causal factor — allowed values

Human act or omission → intentional / unintentional / undetermined intent
Equipment failure
Natural phenomenon
Undetermined

Heat source vs primary causal factor

Variable	Question answered
Heat source	What energy initiated combustion in the item first ignited?
Primary causal factor	Why was the item exposed to that heat source long enough to ignite?

HeatWaves preserves this boundary in canonical naming even when Norwegian sources blur values — see overlap notes in category-values-by-source.md.

Where to read full value enumerations

Variable	Report section
Type of building (+ Eurostat codes)	§4.4.1, Annex A
Area of origin	§4.5.1
Item first ignited	§4.5.2
Articles contributing to fire development	§4.5.3
Heat source	§4.5.4
Primary causal factor	§4.5.5
Example incident form	Annex B
Stakeholder comments	Annex C–D

Full report: eu-firestat-final-report.md.

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EU Firestat variable cheat sheet

Quick reference for EU Firestat Tier 1/2 harmonised variables, fire-incident threshold, and HeatWaves mapping. Full definitions and value lists in eu-firestat-final-report.md.

EU Firestat variable cheat sheet

Fire incident threshold

A fire incident (minimum dataset scope) is a building fire where:

The fire service attended, confirmed fire (ongoing or extinguished), and
Resulting damage to people, property, or environment.

Damage means any of: injuries at scene, fatalities at scene, property damage ≥ €100, or environmental contamination requiring clean-up.

Fire = uncontrolled self-supporting flaming, glowing, or smouldering combustion. Explosions, static discharge, and self-immolation are excluded unless they lead to fire as defined above.

Terminology draws on ISO/TS 17755-2 (Fire safety — Statistical data collection — Part 2: Vocabulary).

Implementation tiers

Tier	When	Count
Tier 1	First priority — implement before Tier 2	8 variables (#1–#8)
Tier 2	After Tier 1 is efficient	6 variables (#9–#14)

Countries may collect additional variables in parallel; the tiers define the minimum harmonised European dataset.

Tier 1 variables (priority)

#	EU Firestat variable	Category group	Definition (summary)	HeatWaves
1	Number of fatalities	Human	Persons who died from fire-related injuries (within 1 year; ≥90 days acceptable per CTIF)	Not a chart dimension — aggregate outcome
2	Number of injuries	Human	Persons injured (not counted as deaths) from the fire incident	Not a chart dimension — aggregate outcome
3	Age of fatalities	Human	Age in years at time of fire; estimate when unknown	Not a chart dimension
4	Primary causal factor	Fire (cause)	Most important factor explaining why the item first ignited was exposed to the heat source long enough for uncontrolled combustion	`cause` (Årsak) — BRIS, BRASK
5	Type of building	Building	Eurostat construction classification (residential / non-residential / mixed-use / under construction)	`building_type` filter
6	Incident location	Incident	Coordinates, country, region, town, postal code, street (or country only if unknown)	`region_code` where ingested
7	Incident date	Incident	Earliest available moment of occurrence (`dd/mm/yyyy`)	`period_start` / time axis
8	Incident time	Incident	Earliest available moment (`hh:mm` 24h + timezone)	Sub-year grain where daily data exists

Tier 2 variables (second priority)

#	EU Firestat variable	Category group	Definition (summary)	HeatWaves
9	Number of floors	Building	Count above/below ground level (main entrance = ground)	Not ingested as standard dim
10	Area of origin	Fire	Localized area where the fire started	`POLITI_ARNESTED` (Arnested) — BRIS Police
11	Heat source	Fire	Source of energy initiating combustion in the item first ignited	`KILDE` (Tennkilde) — BRASK, BRIS
12	Item first ignited	Fire	First fuel with sufficient volume/intensity for self-supporting combustion	`OBJEKT` — BRIS Police
13	Articles contributing to fire development	Fire	Article(s) assessed to significantly contribute beyond the item first ignited (multi-select; only if fire spread)	Not a primary HeatWaves chart axis
14	Fire safety measures present	Building	Detection, alarm, extinguishing, passive protection, smoke control — present and operated?	Not ingested as standard dim

Numbering schemes (Scheme A vs Scheme B)

Variable	Scheme A (Exec Summary, Rec 3, §3.3)	Scheme B (§11.2, §12 conclusions)
Primary causal factor	4	7
Area of origin	10	10
Heat source	11	11
Item first ignited	12	13
Articles contributing to fire development	13	12

Category groups (Table 1)

Group	Variables
Incident characteristics	Date, time, location
Human characteristics	Fatalities, injuries, age of fatalities
Building characteristics	Type of building, number of floors, fire safety measures
Fire characteristics	Area of origin, item first ignited, articles contributing to development, heat source, primary causal factor

Primary causal factor — allowed values

Human act or omission → intentional / unintentional / undetermined intent
Equipment failure
Natural phenomenon
Undetermined

Heat source vs primary causal factor

Variable	Question answered
Heat source	What energy initiated combustion in the item first ignited?
Primary causal factor	Why was the item exposed to that heat source long enough to ignite?

HeatWaves preserves this boundary in canonical naming even when Norwegian sources blur values — see overlap notes in category-values-by-source.md.

Where to read full value enumerations

Variable	Report section
Type of building (+ Eurostat codes)	§4.4.1, Annex A
Area of origin	§4.5.1
Item first ignited	§4.5.2
Articles contributing to fire development	§4.5.3
Heat source	§4.5.4
Primary causal factor	§4.5.5
Example incident form	Annex B
Stakeholder comments	Annex C–D

Full report: eu-firestat-final-report.md.