Thank you for your request under the Environmental Information Regulations.
We can confirm that Essex County Fire & Rescue Service does hold part of the information you have requested.
Please see below the answer to your request.
Questions and final response:
Question 1 – I am conducting research on behalf of the Institute of Occupational Safety & Health ‘s (IOSH) Fire Risk Management Group into the number of car fires that Essex County Fire & Rescue Service attended between the years 01 January 1995 – 31 December 2023 (inclusive).
I have particular interest in those fires occurring within multistorey car parks.
I would be grateful if the information could show:
• The type of fuel in the vehicle of origin (e.g., petrol, diesel, Hybrid or electric)
• The number of cars affected by such fire in each year
• The number of fires that resulted in, and the degree of, injury in each year
Essex County Fire & Rescue Service (ECFRS) are able to supply information from May 2009 onwards, as we do not hold records prior to this date.
ECFRS attended 123 fires at Multi Storey Car Parks since the 1st May 2009.
The breakdown of these fires by year is attached PDF Page 1
12 Victims have resulted from these fire incidents of which 11 victims were rescued without an injury and one was rescued with a back/neck injury. This is shown in the attached PDF Page 2.
We do not hold any data for the type of fuel in the vehicle of origin (e.g., petrol, diesel, Hybrid or electric) or the number of cars affected by such fire in each year
Question 2 - Any reports following investigation into those fires.
All incidents that are attended to by ECFRS are recorded and entered into our Incident Recording System, we are able to produce Incident Reports from this system to interested parties.
It is not possible to provide the Incident Reports for the 123 incidents to you, the exception applicable to the information is: EIR Regulation 12 (4) (b) – Manifestly Unreasonable
Public Interest Considerations Favouring Disclosure
The efficiency and effectiveness of the Authority
Transparency when spending public money.
Transparency over decision making.
Informing public debate
Public Interest Considerations Not Favouring Disclosure
Volume of information requested.
Timescales applicable Disproportionate effect on Workload of Staff
Public Interest Balancing Test
We are unable to provide the reports for each of the incidents that you request.
The resource needed to perform the task efficiently would be removed from performing their other statutory tasks, this would have a negative impact on the performance of our duties.
We believe that the resource would have to allocate in excess of 20 hours to provide the incidents reports that you request.
We believe that the information is important, we ask the requestor to consider identifying a limited number of incidents and request the Incidents reports for that limited number. Perhaps the incident reports for the incidents within the last 2 years?
This would ensure that information is transparent and could assist in informing public debate.
We believe this would be a good resolution for both the requestor and ECFRS and would contribute to our commitment to transparency for our communities within Essex.
It is our opinion that the balance of the public interest test favours maintaining the exception and this information should not be disclosed.
Therefore, we will not be complying with this part of your request. In accordance with the Environmental Information Regulations, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice in respect of this part of your request.
We hope this information is useful to you.
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Incident and other data is published on our transparency site. Incident Data (essexfire.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, System & Data Information Governance Team, Kelvedon Park, Rivenhall, Witham, Essex CM8 3HB.
Please ensure you quote the above reference number in all future communications.