It may seem self-evident that an electrical system needs to be »safe«, but what do we mean by this term? Safety is perhaps best defined by the consequences of a lack of it. In the case of electrical installations, the lack of safety results – in the worst cases – in either fire or fatal electric shock.

Good statistics on just how many house fires are caused by faulty electrical installations are simply not available, but the figures that are in the public domain indicate that the issue is a major one. In the European Union, there are approximately 600,000 reported domestic fires annually. This is equivalent to three in each thousand homes catching fire every year.  The cost of these fires in damage to property is around ? 3.8 billion annually, but the total cost to society is much higher. Taking into account injury, intervention, fire prevention and insurance activity, the total cost is around ? 16.7 billion annually.

Of course, not all fires are electrical in origin. Estimates as to the share of fires in dwellings with electrical causes vary widely, from 10% to 25%. It is, however, widely recognised that fires with electrical causes tend to be much more serious than those with other causes, perhaps being as much as five times as costly on average. Taking the figures available, it is fair to assume that there are 80-120,000 domestic fires in Europe annually with electrical causes, costing somewhere in the range ? 4-7 billion.

Death and injury caused by fire cannot be measured in Euros, and they must be a focus of concern. There are around seven fire deaths per million inhabitants in Europe annually and more than ten times this number of injuries. It is probable that 20-30% of fire deaths and injury result from fires with an electrical cause, most of which occur in the home. According to calculations presented in the FEEDS document »Towards Improved Electrical Installations in European Homes«, there are 3,250 domestic fire deaths annually in the EU-25.

It is clear from the figures that there is a huge cost to society in fires caused by poor domestic electrical installations. The extent of death and injury caused by electric shock is much less easy to determine, but anecdotal evidence suggests that this is also very significant and often the result of poor electrical systems rather than simple human error.

… damage, death and injury caused by poor domestic electrical installations in Europe is increasing.

The safety of domestic electrical installations is a major issue, but is the issue becoming more important? Here, the evidence is ambiguous: the total number of domestic fires is fairly stable, not increasing. It appears, however, that the proportion of fires with electrical causes is rising, as other sources of fire (cooking, open fires, candles, cigarettes) become less of a hazard. The trend in electric shock is unknown. On balance, it is fair to assume that damage, death and injury caused by poor domestic electrical installations in Europe is increasing. This must be considered to be unacceptable in a society that is growingly safety conscious.