- Title:
-
An Economic Assessment of Industrial Fires in New Zealand
- Date:
- June 2002
- Organisations
- NZFS
- Authors:
- Mark Goodchild, Ganesh Nana, Kel Sanderson
- Location:
- New Zealand, New Zealand
Overview
This report makes an assessment using a common applied economic research technique known as an Economic Impact Assessment (EIA) to measure the direct and indirect economic costs associated with industrial fires. The EIA allows the indirect (supply-chain) impact of changes in business activity due to industrial fire incidents to be measured in terms of changes in economic output and employment.The three main production sectors had very similar total direct costs of industrial fires in 2000:
- The primary production sector consisting of agriculture, fishing, and mining recorded a total cost $18.0 million
- The secondary production sector consisting of processing and manufacturing recorded a total cost of $16.7 million
- The local trade sector consisting of retail trade, accommodation, cafes and restaurants recorded a total cost $16.8 million.
Insurance claims information was obtained from data received from surveyed firms, which the industry indicated accounted for 50 percent of the industrial fire insurance business. Overall, this research shows that claims information can be integrated with the FIRS data on a consistent basis to enhance the information available from FIRS. The cost of emergency attendance at industrial fires is also assessed.
