FOI4690 / July 2024 / Electrical Fires 2021 - 2024

Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We can confirm that Essex County Fire & Rescue Service does hold the information you have requested.

Questions and final response:

Question 1 – I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act, can you please provide the following:

1. How many electrical fires has the service responded to in the last three years (between April 6-April 5, 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24)?

Please see attached spreadsheet which contains the data requested.

Question 1a - Of these, how many incidents were in domestic properties and how any commercial? Broken down by year.

Our Incident Recording System (IRS) does not specifically mention whether these incidents occurred at commercial or domestic premises in all records.

The records were interrogated, and we have classified as follows: domestic or non-domestic or vehicle type.

Please see the attached spreadsheet which contains the data.

Question 1b - Of these incidents, how many were caused by electrical products? What were the other causes?

Our Incident Recording System (IRS) does not explicitly state how many of these fires were caused by electric products.

We have interrogated the records and are able to provide the information contained within the attached spreadsheet 

Question 1c - What were the 5 most common products to cause electrical fires for each year?

Our Incident Recording System (IRS) does not state the specific electrical products causing or responsible for fires.

Please see attached spreadsheet which contains the data requested.

Question 2 - How many fatalities has the service recorded as a result of electrical fires in the last three years (between April 6-April 5, 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24)?

ECFRS has recorded a total of two fatalities as a result of electrical fires between the 6th April 2024 and the present day.

Question 2a - How many injuries (serious and slight) has the service recorded as a result of electrical fires during the same period?

ECFRS has recorded a total of 75 injuries from electrical fires during the same period.

The breakdown of this number by the nature of injuries can be found in the attached spreadsheet .

We hope you find this information useful.

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Incident and other data is published on our transparency site. Incident Data (essex-fire.gov.uk).

Please note that the response and data released to you as part of this request will be published on our website http://transparency.essex-fire.gov.uk/.

All requests will be anonymised and no personal information including contact details will be disclosed as part of this process

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Thank you for your interest in Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, we hope this satisfies your request.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to apply for an internal review.

Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of your original email and should be sent to informationgovernance@essex-fire.gov.uk or sent to our postal address: Internal Review, Information Governance Team, Kelvedon Park, Rivenhall, Witham, Essex CM8 3HB.

Please ensure you quote the above reference number in all future communications.