Search

A compilation of structural fire statistics at the national and international levels is presented in the paper. At the national level, data were obtained from Medellín, Manizales and Pereira Cities, the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD), which collects relevant information reported by the National Fire Department of Colombia (DNBC) and from the DNBC. These statistics allow to identify the types of buildings in which structural fires are most frequent and the number of people injured or deceased in structural fires in Colombia. At the international level, it was possible to identify the number of structural fires reported by different countries from 1996 to 2018. These data were reported by the International Association of Fire and Rescue Services (CTIF). It was possible to establish from this information that Colombia presents values lower than 0.3 fires per thousand of inhabitants, surpassed by European countries and the United States, where this index is higher than 1. It should be clarified that the methodology for the elaboration of fire statistics includes international parameters related to the comparison of damages caused by structural fires with the population, which do not apply in Colombia in all cases. Thus, the results were analyzed with great caution, taking into account that, when comparing the results with the population of Colombia, data were presented that do not represent the current state of the country in the face of fire events. This was due to the quality of the information available in Colombia. The paper includes recommendations to be included in the next version of the Colombian Code for Earthquake-Resistant Construction (NSR). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]