Call that a wildfire crisis? See this:

Help Talking-up Scotland keep going

Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going

Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421

Bella Caledonia is great, nearly all the time. They have a lot of high quality writing, often putting our more prosaic percentages and line-graphs stuff in the shade but, every so often, show considerable political naïveté or lack of concern, platforming attacks on the Scottish Government which can only damage the wider movement – if you can’t run a…how can you run a country?

Two days ago they had the above from an SWP member on behalf of the FBU. You have to follow a link to find out about the author. Unlike those pro-independence ‘democratic socialists’, in the Scottish Socialist Party, the SWP are apparently ‘democratic centralists‘. I think we know what that means – Unionists stuck to Trotsky’s no revolution in a single country thesis.

Here’s what the SWP deliberately and BC absent-mindedly I hope, are hiding from you:

Number of fires fell 5% in the last year. In 2024-25, there were 22,925 fires in Scotland, down 5% on 2023-24 and the lowest in the last ten years. There were 36 fire fatalities in 2024-25, down from 42 in 2023-24 and the second lowest in the last decade.

The number of deliberate building fires has fallen over the last year while the number of deliberate road vehicle fires increased over the same period. There were 290 deliberate building fires in 2025-26 Q1, down from 302 in 2024-25 Q1. There were 229 deliberate road vehicle fires in 2025-26 Q1, up from 170 in 2024-25 Q1.

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From Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Data Report: August 2025:

Number of fires fell 10% in the last year. In 2023-24, there were 24,060 fires in Scotland, down 10% on 2022-23 and the lowest in the last ten years. There were 42 fire fatalities in 2023-24, down from 43 in 2022-23 and around the average for the last decade. https://www.gov.scot/publications/safer-communities-and-justice-statistics-monthly-data-report-august-2025/pages/statistics-on-community-safely/

Longer term, has the number of fires increased or decreased?

Domestic fires have plummeted by 50%in the last 2 years.

Non-domestic fires fell 34.7% in last 10 years.

https://external-doc-library.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/PROD/AnnualPerformanceReviewReport2024-2025.pdf

Staffing trend?

An 18-20% staffing reduction set against a 50% reduction in domestic fires and a 35% reduction in non-domestic fires suggests a clear business case for fewer firefighters.

Help Talking-up Scotland keep going

Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going

Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421