The Commission determined that its research priorities for 2007/2008 were as follows:

Targeting Vulnerable Groups

• review of fire safety in existing homes including modifications, heating appliances, risky/safe behaviours
• perceived barriers to take up of a fire safe culture
• delivery mechanisms for hard-to-reach groups

Volunteer Issues

• benefits to volunteers of participation in the Commission-sponsored annual challenges and conferences
• financial losses suffered by Fire Service volunteers as a result of accidents arising out of volunteer activities

Strategic challenges

• sustainability and Fire Service carbon footprint reduction: establishment of baseline emission profile and priorities for progressing towards carbon neutrality
• barriers and opportunities for recruitment given the changing role of the Fire Service in attending floods, road accidents, medical assists and other non-fire emergencies

Quality of our information

• review of the lexicon adopted to collect incident data: potential disparities in interpretation
• how on-line collection methods affects data quality
• application of rules engines to collection of incident data
• application of intelligent data mining technologies to automatically uncover areas to target community safety activity

Measuring our effectiveness

• capability and readiness: key elements of a new composite readiness index
• evaluation of targeted programmes on our key results
• true measurement of social behavioural change
• Fire Service impact on non-fire emergencies
• the cost of repair to fire-damaged buildings
• assessment tools for rural service delivery
• Fire Service contribution to other agencies’ mandate eg: ACC, MCDEM, Health, LTNZ

Incidence and control of vegetation fires in rural areas

• projects in alignment with Rural Fire Research Strategy

Croydon Consultants Ltd
Training for rural fire volunteers

The aim of the research is to identify the factors that motivate New Zealand’s volunteer rural firefighters and influence their attitudes towards training. As a result of the Fire Service Amendment Act 2005, the National Rural Fire Authority is required to set minimum standards for training, and is seeking to introduce a requirement for rural firefighters to undertake training modules. However, there ahs been some resistance from rural firefighters for this. This research will seek to identify the reasons for this resistance, factors which influence the strength of resistance and ways by which this resistance could be reduced.

The research will be based upon a review of the Australian experience and interviews with principal rural fire officers and rural firefighter in ten regions across New Zealand. Analysis of this data will assist in developing the capacity of the National Rural Fire Authority by providing rigorous, nationwide information on:

• how wide-spread any reluctance is to the take-up of training;
• factors influencing this resistance and
• effective incentives to encourage volunteers to undertake module-based training.

Centre for Human Factors & Ergonomics
Rural firefighter exposure to fire ground gases with relevance to physiological workload and fire suppression productivity

This research project aims to improve the health and safety of rural firefighters by determining, under New Zealand operational conditions, the physiological workload of firefighting tasks. The research is an extension of that supported by New Zealand Fire Service Commission Contestable Research Fund in 2006-2007. The research will continue to measure physiological workload by recording firefighters’ heart rate but will get a more accurate measure of physiological workload by concurrently measuring the concentration of carbon monoxide (CO) in the breathing zone of the firefighter and the breathing rate of the firefighter. At the same time, the research will continue to measure the fire suppression productivity under real fire conditions to provide real data for incorporation into fire management decision support systems. The project will utilise the novel suite of data collection equipment developed by the research team to record visual, physiological and geographical information relevant to firefighting. Results from the research will be used to quantify firefighter physical workload and fire suppression productivity under real fire conditions.

BRANZ
Cost of repair to fire damaged buildings

One of the roles of the New Zealand Fire Service is to limit the extent of damage to buildings from fire. To measure its effectiveness in this task the Fire Service records a significant amount of information at the site to help assess its firefighting effectiveness. One of the main measures used is the ratio of area damaged or destroyed to the total building area. However, it is suspected this may not be an adequate measure in many cases because of localised damage can result in major costs or even total replacement of the building. This project is to investigate the real costs of recovery following a fire, to investigate the criteria used by insurance assessors to write-off a partially damaged building, and to recommend a more suitable measure of measuring effectiveness.

Pricewaterhouse Coopers
Sustainability and carbon footprint reduction

The New Zealand Fire Service Commission is committed to supporting the Government’s efforts in moving towards a sustainable New Zealand through a carbon neutral public service, and through improving energy efficiency and the uptake of renewable energy.

The research project will provide:

• a credible and comprehensive inventory of greenhouse gas emissions arising from the Fire Service’s non-operational activities, measured and reported in accordance with recognised national and international best practice standards;
• recommended types of targets for monitoring reductions in avoidable greenhouse gas emissions from non-operational activities, based on international research and experience;
• a framework for developing an action plan for reducing avoidable green house gas emissions from non-operational activities to meet the targets set by the Fire Service; and
• guidance on identifying approaches to reducing avoidable greenhouse gas emissions from non-operational activities in the areas of greatest need, based on national and international best practice approaches developed at similar organisations.

The research project will be conducted in partnership with appropriate Fire Service staff, thus ensuring the skills and methodologies required to measure and manage greenhouse gas emissions in future years are successfully transferred.

Centre for Research, Evaluation and Social Assessment
A review of fire safety in existing homes

The proposed research has the ultimate aim of reducing the incidence and consequences of domestic fires. The research is innovative, applied, multi-disciplinary, action-orientated and further builds on key research in home comfort and safety. It links directly with an established community-based mechanism to carry out household surveys of comfort and safety (including fire risk).

The research establishes actual prevalence and characteristics of risk factors across a range of dwelling and household types, as a basis for developing practical risk assessment tool and delivery mechanism for both typical and higher risk homes. This tool will complement existing public awareness fire safety campaigns and practical interventions, which are typically not taken up by high risk and hard-to-access households (e.g., those not linked to community services, not identified as high-risk, etc).

The research will measure the factors contributing to fire risk, especially the number, type and safety of ignition sources, the flammability of building and furnishing materials and the fire risk posed by typical housekeeping and maintenance practices in a wide range f dwellings (approximately 1,000), including those of older people.

Synovate
Measuring the effectiveness of the UFBA conference and challenge events

Each year the UFBA holds a series of Firefighter Challenges culminating in a member Conference. These challenges are in part funded by the NZFS and along with the Conference are aimed at achieving the following objectives:

• communicating key fire safety messages to the community,
• building the reputation of the Fire Service as a professional organisation and importantly a desirable employee
• facilitating information, skill and knowledge exchange within the firefighting community
• to build pride and morale within the professional and volunteer firefighting community.

To evaluate the effectiveness of these events in achieving these objectives and to identify opportunities to further improve the events, research has been commissioned.

This research seeks to measure the effectiveness of both the Conference and the Challenge series by identifying the nature of the experience and expectations of participants. This will be achieved through conducting:

• telephone interviews with a sample of challenge and conference participants and,
• face-to-face interviews with senior delegates to the conference.

The outcomes of this research will be used to benchmark and evaluate the performance of both Challenges and Conferences. This information may be used to justify the ongoing funding of the events. Importantly it will be used to improve the quality of the events, the experiences of those participating and ultimately the outcomes achieved.

Business & Economic Research Limited
Capability and readiness: key elements for new performance measures

The objective of this research project is to develop a comprehensive, objective measure of the capability and readiness of the New Zealand Fire Service.

The Commission seeks research and advice on the establishment of a composite index that would accurately reflect the state of capability and readiness across the Fire Service’s network of stations, brigades, workforce, operational equipment and communications systems. This project aims to be able to show the extent to which present levels of capability and readiness will be sustainable into the future by tracking skills, experience, recruitment and retention of personnel; and volunteer and career staff numbers and training; and other factors identified during the process of research.

UMR Research Ltd
Kitchen fires promotion effectiveness research

Twenty-seven New Zealanders died in fires in 2005-06; 30 in 2004-05 and 45 in 2003-04. However this does not reflect the huge number of actual fire incidents and potential for serious injury or death from residential property fires over the same period. In 2005-06 there were a total of 6,463 residential fires; 6,549 in 2004-05 and 6,520 in 2003-04. [Residential fires statistics are inclusive of houses, flats, (home units and apartments), boarding establishments, hotels (motels and lodges) and outbuildings.] Of these, fires in single houses were the main category of fire. In 2005-06, 4,940 (76%) of the 6,463 incidents were in residential houses.

The New Zealand Fire Service has identified kitchen fires as a significant category of house fire and has developed various promotions and advertising campaigns to address this issue.
This research seeks to ascertain the current situation with regard to kitchen fire safety and awareness and the impact, if any, the current campaigns have had.

The key outcomes will be to identify gaps in current knowledge and understanding amongst the general and targeted sectors of the NZ population and make recommendations for future campaigns.

Auckland UniServices Ltd
Application of intelligent data mining technologies to automatically uncover areas to target community safety activity

This project is an investigation of the possible application of data mining tools and statistical techniques to the problem of detecting and quantifying changes in the frequency and spatial occurrence of fires.

The Fire Service database is a comprehensive record of all fires and other incidents to which the Fire Service has responded since 1998. It logs incidents in both space and time, together with detailed additional information such as the type and severity of the incident. Applying data mining tools and statistical techniques to this data set has the potential to give the Fire Service early warning of changes in the frequency and location of fires as well as identifying where community safety campaigns might be targeted, and to what extent such campaigns have been effective.