Thank you for your request under the Environmental Information Regulations.
We can confirm that Essex County Fire & Rescue Service (ECFRS) does hold the information you have requested.
Please see below the answer to your request.
Questions and final response:
Question 1 – On the 15th of April I made a data request about wildfires. Your FRS provided with me with data which was much appreciated.
I would like questions, a follow up data request based on information that I felt was missing to answer the questions I have.
I would like to receive information on which definition of the term ‘wildfire’ is used by your FRS when selecting wildfire events.
Essex County Fire & Rescue Service can confirm that the below is an extract from our current guidance to operational crews.
If any of the below criteria are identified, the incident will be declared a Wildfire.
A wildfire will meet one or more of the following criteria:
• Involves a geographical area of at least one hectare (10,000 square metres)
• Has a sustained flame length of more than 1.5 metres
• Requires a committed resource of at least four Fire and Rescue Service appliances/resources
• Requires resources to be committed for at least six hours
• Presents a serious threat to life, environment, property, or infrastructure
Question 2 - I would like to receive data on general outdoor vegetation fires during July 2022 including:
a. The number of incidents
b. Locations in coordinates (if possible)
c. Indication of the damaged area (square meters or hectares)
d. Number of calls received per incident
Please find attached a spreadsheet with all outdoor fires that ECFRS attended for the dates specified.
Location information has been removed from incidents that occurred in a domestic/private garden, this is to protect the personal data of residents/persons concerned.
We apply Section 40(3)(a)(i) Personal data of third parties is exempt if disclosure would breach the principles of the Data Protection Act 2018 Data Protection Act 2018 (legislation.gov.uk).
We believe that providing you with the information would breach the following Data Protection principles:
• Data shall be fairly and lawfully processed
• Data shall be processed for limited purposes
We are applying this exemption because
a) we do not have the consent of the person who is the subject of the information to disclose it to you,
b) disclosure does not meet any of the schedule 2 conditions that would make it “necessary”, and
c) disclosure of the information to you would not be connected to the purpose for which we have collected and are holding the information.
We further believe that the release of the requested information would cause unwarranted interference to the rights and freedoms and legitimate interests of the data subject(s).
Such a disclosure would in our view constitute a breach of Article 8 in the Human Rights Act (the right to privacy and family life).
In such circumstances this is an absolute exemption, and this is a refusal notice in respect of your request.
Question 3 - I would like to receive a general overview of the total of number of incidents reported in July 2022 per category of incident type.
FOIA Section 21 - Information accessible by other means I can confirm that Essex County Fire & Rescue Service does hold this information, however the information is exempt from disclosure to you.
The exemption applicable to the information is Freedom of Information Act 2000 (legislation.gov.uk)
Section 21 of the Act - Information available elsewhere.
The information you have requested is available at our Transparency website 2022-23 (essex-fire.gov.uk), you can download Incident Data for the financial year, use the filter buttons to apply the criteria you specify, date, property type etc, this will then display the information that you require.
We hope this information is useful to you.
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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.
We would be grateful if you are able to complete our Feedback form, this will enable us to learn and improve our service.
Please use the above link to access, all responses are anonymous.