Incidents involving warehouse's, schools & disposable e-cigarettes/vapes

WMFS OFFICIAL – NEW – FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST – FOI24040 

Ref: FOI/24040 

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 

1. Warehouse fires: We are interested in the number of fire incidents in warehouses. 
a. How many fires in warehouses have you attended in the last three calendar years (2024 – to date, 2023, 2022, 2021)? 

 
b. Per year, please breakdown the above by the following: 
c. Extent of damage 
d. Cause of fire 

Reply 

This information is exempt under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as this information is reasonably accessible to the requestor. The information can be found on the Birmingham City Observatory website at the following link:  

https://www.cityobservatory.birmingham.gov.uk/@west-midlands-fire-service/wmfs-incident-data-since-2009

Please note data from April 2023 – March 2024 is exempt under Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as it is intended for future publication. The data will be published on the Birmingham Observatory website above at the end of the financial year. 

Guidance: Please highlight column ‘L’ on the spreadsheet where you can then apply a ‘Filter’ from the ‘Sort & Filter’ button. Alternatively, you can use the ‘CTRL + F’ function to filter through key words on the spreadsheet.  

Request 

2. Fires in Schools: I am seeking to understand how many schools have been impacted by fires and whether sprinklers were present. 
1. How many fires at schools have you attended in the last five full years (2023 to 2019 or nearest period, if not available). If possible, please provide a breakdown per year of: 

 
a. of the school fires you attended in this period, how many had sprinklers fitted? 
b. Please provide a breakdown of the causes of fire by year. 
c. For each year, please also provide a breakdown of the type of school (e.g. primary, secondary), any injuries or deaths, the extent of damage to school, age of school, how many of the schools at the time the fire broke out had received a low, medium or high fire risk assessment (or alternative classification if used), how many school fire risk assessments have you carried out in the last five full years (2023 to 2019 or nearest period, if not available) and if possible, please provide a breakdown of the outcomes e.g. low, medium, high risk 

Reply 

Please see attached document Incidents at Schools 

Please see below the number of audits carried out at schools since 2019, with the outcome 

Please note this list contains more than schools, there are university buildings, training centres, etc. We do not record the outcome in terms of Low, Medium, High risk however the risk assessment carried out by the inspecting officers will determine the outcome as listed above.  

Please also note that there have been a few instances where no outcome has been recorded.  

Request 

 
3. I would be very grateful if you could provide figures relating to fires caused by disposable e-cigarettes and vapes. I appreciate this may not be a category you record. It would be great if you could perform a free text search on “vape” and “e-cigarette” together with any other terms you think relevant. Please could you provide the information, split by the years 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 (to date) 

Reply 

This information is exempt under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as this information is reasonably accessible to the requestor. The information can be found on the Birmingham City Observatory website at the following link:  

https://www.cityobservatory.birmingham.gov.uk/@west-midlands-fire-service/wmfs-incident-data-since-2009

Please note data from April 2023 – March 2024 is exempt under Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as it is intended for future publication. The data will be published on the Birmingham Observatory website above at the end of the financial year. 

Guidance: Please highlight column ‘Y’ on the spreadsheet where you can then apply a ‘Filter’ from the ‘Sort & Filter’ button. Alternatively, you can use the ‘CTRL + F’ function to filter through key words on the spreadsheet. 

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.