Electric vehicle/lithium battery fires

Ref: FOI/22065

RE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 REQUEST  

West Midlands Fire Service has now completed its search for the information requested on 16^th June 2022

Please find below a summary of our findings.

Request.

A) How many electric vehicle / lithium battery fires have been tackled since 2017? (Five years + 2022)

Please present the findings by year:

2022 (so far - Jan-June)
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017

B) Please show the types of vehicles in the data. (EG, cars, bikes, scooters etc)

Reply

Please see table below:

Please note this may include hybrid vehicles as we have no ‘hybrid’ fuel type so it’s possible they could be recorded as electric. I have excluded the fire in 2022 which was caused by a separate fire spreading to a vehicle.

These are not necessarily battery fires, in only one incident was “Apparatus – batteries, generators” recorded as the source of ignition.

Request

C) Has the service issued any advice, guidance or warnings around the subject of electric battery vehicle and fires?

Reply

WMFS has not issued any advice, guidance or warnings around the subject of electric battery vehicle and fires.

Request

 D) Did any of the incidents result in significant damage or injury?

Reply

No injuries have been recorded.

On three occasions the extent of the damage was the whole vehicle

If you have any queries about this freedom of information request, please contact us.  Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

For service complaints, issues or comments regarding this request please contact The Public Relations Department, West Midlands Fire Service, 99 Vauxhall Road, Birmingham, B7 4HW

Further information concerning Freedom of Information requests can be found on the Information Commissioner website at either the following link: https://ico.org.uk/ or at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF.