P. Mei, S. Lu, G. H. Li, S. Li and H. P. Zhang (2014) Evaluation of Fire Protection Performance of Eight Countries Based on Fire Statistics: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis. Journal/Fire Technology 50 349-361. [In English]
Web link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10694-012-0301-x
Keywords: Fire protection performance; Data envelopment analysis; Efficiency; evaluation; Fire statistics; International perspective; NONPARAMETRIC APPROACH; ECO-EFFICIENCY; DEA; OUTPUTS

Abstract: To provide a view of countries' relative fire protection efficiency from an international perspective, this study conducted an evaluation of fire protection performance of eight countries (i.e. Denmark, Japan, Norway, Singapore, Slovenia, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States) based on the fire statistics from 2000 to 2008 released by the World Fire Statistic Center. Three inputs and two undesirable outputs were determined. After applying a transformation to both undesirable outputs, the overall efficiency and pure technical efficiency were acquired using two basic models of data envelopment analysis, respectively. Thereafter, the scale efficiency was calculated and the results were analyzed. It indicates that international technical exchange and cooperation in fire protection are needed for these eight countries. According to their status, Singapore and Slovenia could be set as good examples; Denmark, Norway, and United Kingdom need to reallocate their resources and refine the operation mode; United States should reduce the scale properly; Japan and Sweden need both scale increase and technique adjustment. An increasing trend is believed to exist for the OTE, PTE, and SE means of countries. However, further work is needed to improve and enlarge the dataset to obtain more accurate, wide, and applicable results.