Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
We can confirm that Essex County Fire & Rescue Service (ECFRS) does hold some of the information you have requested.
Questions and final response:
Question 1 –A) Copies of the PowerPoint presentations or strategic/tactical debriefs for the following incidents:
Eastwood industrial unit fire 27/05/2023, incident number: 195304
Turing Court commercial warehouse fire 17/09/2023, incident number: 210453
Rochford CoPart auction yard fire 11/08/2023, incident number: 205767
Stambridge industrial building fire 24/12/2023, incident number: 220613
Please find attached debriefs for: Stambridge industrial building fire 24/12/2023, incident number:220613
No debriefs exist for the three remaining incidents.
Question 2 - B) In FOI request 4542, I asked for the debriefs for Industrial unit fires at River Way, Harlow April 2022 and Croft Way, Witham in September 2022, the response given was that ‘’no debriefs were undertaken’’. Since then, it, I have considered whether that is because the service had not carried them out at that point rather than deciding to not complete one. Can this be clarified please.
No debriefs exist for these incidents.
Question 3 - C) Similarly, I was informed in the same request that the debrief for the Harwich multiple buildings fire existed but was exempt under sections 31 (1)(c) and 31 (1)(b). Since the conclusion of the investigation has stated it was ‘’undetermined’’ and that the buildings are undergoing a complete rebuild, I wondered whether those exemptions still applied- if they do whether it would be possible to redact most of it leaving the fire service attendance- for example, if this request was applied to the Kent Foods debrief, the only information left unredacted would the information timed at 23:55 and 00:02 (please attachments for examples).
The Hanover Inn Incident was exempted from disclosure in your request FOI4542, responded to on 16th February 2023. We are unaware of the current state of any legal proceedings involving this incident.
We can add more detail to the contents of the debrief and can confirm that the details you require – service attendance, are not contained within the debrief for this incident.
We have previously supplied our service attendance at this incident to you, in your Freedom of Information request 4571, the response was provided to you on 22nd May 2023.
Question 4 - D) Time of make-up message, make up number and callsigns assigned (including specialist appliances) message for:
Springwood Drive, Braintree, industrial units alight 02/09/2017
High Road, Pitsea, derelict building alight 03/09/2019
Horseman Side, Navestock, outbuildings alight 12/05/2021
Pitseaville Grove, Basildon, multiple houses alight 30/10/2023
Please find attached spreadsheet containing the information requested for the following incidents:
21762159 Springwood Drive, Braintree, industrial units alight 02/09/2017
219108209 High Road, Pitsea, derelict building alight 03/09/2019
221144250 Horseman Side, Navestock, outbuildings alight 12/05/2021
215153 Pitseaville Grove, Basildon, multiple houses alight 30/10/2023
Question 5 - E) Appliance timings (callsign, time mobilised, time on scene, time available/relieved from incident) for:
High Road, Pitsea, derelict building alight 03/09/2019
Pitseaville Grove, Basildon, multiple houses alight 30/10/2023
Timings for callsigns 30P1, 35P1, 66W1, 55T1, 55P1 that attended Brickfields Way 50 cars alight 30/05/2018.
Please find attached spreadsheet containing the information requested for the following incidents:
219108209 High Road, Pitsea, derelict building alight 03/09/2019
215153 Pitseaville Grove, Basildon, multiple houses alight 30/10/2023
21878319 Brickfields Way 50 cars alight 30/05/2018.
Timings for callsigns 30P1, 35P1, 66W1, 55T1, 55P1 that attended.
Question 6 - F) A summary of the changes that the service is considering making which includes not attending all AFAs and removing eight second pumps and reasoning behind these.
Community Risk Management Plan
As a Fire and Rescue Service we have a statutory duty to produce a Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP).
ECFRS are in the process of developing our CRMP, which will apply to our service from January 2025 to 2029.
Our work on this plan is ongoing, the plan is due to be published in September 2024.
From September through to November 2024, our communities will be asked for their views on the published plan.
Please use our website Homepage | Essex County Fire and Rescue Service (essexfire.gov.uk) to access the CRMP consultation in September 2024.
Your views and input into the CRMP are important to us and we encourage you to contribute to the consultation once published.
Automatic Fire Alarm Attendance We have recently explored reducing the number of appliances that are mobilised to most non-domestic AFA’s (known as unwanted fire signals) from two appliances to one appliance.
However, following our normal internal consultation process, the decision was taken not to implement any changes to the way we currently mobilise, at this present time.
This may be reviewed as part of the CRMP.
Additionally, we are currently liaising with the National Fire Chief’s Council, as there is an active “Unwanted Fire Signals” national workstream that may influence any future considerations.
We hope you find this information useful.
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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, Information Governance Team, Kelvedon Park, Rivenhall, Witham, Essex CM8 3HB.
Please ensure you quote the above reference number in all future communications