Electric / Hybrid Vehicles
Where applicable, we publish responses to requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This one, Electric / Hybrid Vehicles, is detailed below.
Other FOI's
WMFS OFFICIAL – NEW – FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST – FOI24020
Ref: FOI/24020
RE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 REQUEST
I am writing to confirm that the West Midlands Fire Service has now completed its search for the information you requested further to your freedom of information request.
Please find below a summary of our findings.
Request
Please could you inform me of the numbers of incidents your brigade has attended for fires on:
1. electric buses (where the battery was believed to be the cause of the fire)?
2. hybrid-powered buses (those with duel power; electric and usually diesel or petrol where the battery or hybrid power supply was believed to be the cause of the fire)?
If you could break that down for the (financial or calendar) years for 2023, 2022 and 2021, if that data is available. If there have been any such incidents this year (2024), I would also like to receive that.
3) Based on the assumption that such incidents are relatively low, can you provide details of each incident, including perhaps the when, where, owner of the vehicle (i.e. is it a public transport bus, minibus, schoolbus, double-decker, single-decker etc) and any other recorded particulars about the nature of the fire i.e. was the fire localised to the battery, did it spread, was the vehicle burnt out, were any other vehicles of buildings ignited, how many appliances and firefighters were in attendance, how long did it take to extinguish the fire/make it safe and were there reports of any injuries?
4) Again, based on the assumption that such incidents are infrequent, was the fire service ever required to write a report on any of the incidents. If so, could I have a copy of any such reports? I accept that may involve some redactions.
Reply
We have a category for electric vehicles however, we have not been able to find any records of any fires involving electric buses.
As we do not have a category for hybrid vehicles, they could be recorded as electric, petrol or other. Therefore, we do not have a way to identify these at this current time.
Please see link below to all incident data:
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.