Lithium battery related fires

Ref: FOI/23122

RE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 REQUEST  

West Midlands Fire Service has now completed its search for the information requested on 8^th September 2023.

Please find below a summary of our findings.

Request.

As a freedom of information request, please provide data regarding the number of lithium battery related fires you have recorded. Specifically, please provide:
– Annual totals for the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and so far in 2023
– Those annual totals split by the type of lithium device involved (such as e-bike, e-cigarette, e-scooter).
– Those annual totals split by the number of related injuries or fatalities

Reply

Please see attached 

Please note as data pertaining to the influence of batteries on incidents is not recorded a key word search was performed on the logs to identify relevant incidents. Several spellings of each requested device, such as ebike, e-bike, electric bike, e bike, e-cigarette, ecigarette, e cig, e-cigarette, escooter, e-scooter, electric scooter, and e scooter used to validate that the incidents were relevant. Due to the nature of the key word search, there is the potential for future requests resulting in different counts. Therefore, we would recommend a degree of caution when interpreting the results (as spelling mistakes would result in miscounted incidents).  

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.