FOI Request 1983

Subject: Warehouse Fires / Fires caused by Vapes / Fires in Schools

Status: Complete

Date received: March 2024

Question Asked:

1. Warehouse fires:  We are interested in the number of fire incidents in warehouses.

a. How many fires in warehouses have you attended in the last three calendar years (2024 - to date, 2023, 2022, 2021)?

b. Per year, please breakdown the above by the following:

c. Extent of damage

d. Cause of fire

2. Fires in Schools: I am seeking to understand how many schools have been impacted by fires and whether sprinklers were present.

1. How many fires at schools have you attended in the last five full years (2023 to 2019 or nearest period, if not available).  If possible, please provide a breakdown per year of:

a. of the school fires you attended in this period, how many had sprinklers fitted?

b. Please provide a breakdown of the causes of fire by year.

c. For each year, please also provide a breakdown of the type of school (e.g. primary, secondary), any injuries or deaths, the extent of damage to school, age of school, how many of the schools at the time the fire broke out had received a low, medium or high fire risk assessment (or alternative classification if used), how many school fire risk assessments have you carried out in the last five full years (2023 to 2019 or nearest period, if not available) and if possible, please provide a breakdown of the outcomes e.g. low, medium, high risk

3. I would be very grateful of you could provide figures relating to fires caused by disposable e-cigarettes and vapes.  I appreciate this may not be a category you record.  It would be great if you could perform a free text search on “vape” and “e-cigarette” together with any other terms you think relevant.  Please could you provide the information, split by the years 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 (to date)

Our Response:

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

However, having looked at the request in more detail it is apparent that to comply with this request would far exceed the appropriate limit.  Given the parameters of the search criteria requested and the calendar years requested to search several systems and then extracting only the relevant material would far exceed the appropriate limit.

Therefore, could I respectfully suggest that in order for Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service to comply with this FOI that you break it down into three separate FOI requests.

1. Warehouse Fires

2. Fires in Schools

3. Vape and e-cigarettes

Outcome: Refused

FOI responded to within timescales: YES

Further action: NO