FOI Request 2055

Subject: Fires on Balconies on Residential Buildings

Status: Complete

Date received: September 2024

Question Asked:

Please supply me with data relating to fires on balconies on residential buildings in your area, as follows;

How many fires involving balconies occurred in total between 1st August 2023 and 31st July 2024?

In the same period, how many fires occurred where balconies were found to have contributed to the spread of the fire across the external walls?

Please provide data on the causes of any fires that started on balconies in the period (ie; barbeque, discarded cigarette, electrical appliance fault, etc) and please provide the number of occurrences for each cause.

If your incident recording system does not include “balcony” as a recorded location, could you please perform a search on free text fields in your database for the term, as I have found in the past that this often returns useable data.

Our Response:

One incident was found involving a fire on a balcony where Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service attended between 1st August 2023 and 31st July 2024.  Details can be found on the Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service website below:

Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service - Incidents

Please be aware that there is no specific category on our data systems for fires on balconies.  The information provided is based on a keyword search for ‘balcony’ or ‘balconies’ on our incident recording systems.  Therefore, the data provided may not include all incidents involving fires on balconies unless these keywords were recorded on the incident log.

Outcome: Information Provided

FOI responded to within timescales: YES

Further action: NO