Thank you for your request under the Environmental Information Regulations.
We can confirm that Essex County Fire & Rescue Service does hold the information you have requested.
Please see below the answer to your request.
Questions and final response:
Question 1 – I was wondering under the Freedom Of Information Act if you could tell me how many house fires or incidents have been caused by knock off phone chargers. Not only that, but I am asking this because of a story I read that a 12-year-old in Brazil lost her life after plugging in a mobile phone into one of these Chinese knock off chargers, and she ended up being electrocuted and died with 3rd degree burns. Furthermore, I know that Brazil is going to make it law that when mobile phone manufacturers release new phones it will have to include a brand-new charger. I think it should be law in this country as well as the rest of the UK. As heaven forbid if anything like that happens to any of our children because of a knock off charger.
I can confirm that since 1st January 2020 we have attended 11 incidents where the ignition source noted by our attending crews was listed as ‘Other domestic appliance – Battery Charger’.
There is no reference to the manufacturing origins of the chargers noted by the crews to be the ignition source at the incidents.
I do hope this information is of use to you.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
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.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
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.