The recession is being blamed for an alarming increase in the number of arson attacks in the UK, causing a record level of insurance payouts for fire damage during the first half of this year.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) say that £639 million was paid out over the course of the first six months of 2009, a staggering £3.6 million each day for damage caused by fires.
The plague continues to grow and looks set to exceed the twelve month record set in 2008 when insurers recorded £1.3 billion losses to fire damage in the UK.
The ABI claim in their report ‘Tackling Fire: A Call For Action’ that arson accounts for over half of all commercial fires and tends to increase in times of recession. They say that socially deprived areas and schools are particularly vulnerable, with twenty schools a week currently suffering from some form of arson attack.
The report suggests that while the number of fires reported are falling the increase in large scale fires is increasingly putting lives at risk as well as the incredible financial burden on owners and insurance companies in these difficult times.
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