Date of Request
07/08/2025
Request
Dear Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service,
Please can you supply a count of any Balcony fire related deaths for time periods 1st August 2022 to 31st July 2023 1st August 2023 to 31st July 2024 1st August 2024 to 31st July 2025
Please also supply me with data relating to fires on balconies on residential buildings in your area, as follows; · How many fires involving balconies occurred in total between 1st August 2024 and 31st July 2025?
· In the same period, how many fires occurred where balconies were found to have contributed to the spread of the fire across the external walls?
· Please provide data on the causes of any fires that started on balconies in the period (ie; barbecue, discarded cigarette, electrical appliance fault, etc) and please provide the number of occurrences for each cause.
If your incident recording system does not include “balcony” as a recorded location, could you please perform a search on free text fields in your database for the term, as I have found in the past that this often returns useable data.
Yours faithfully,
Response
Good Morning
Thank you for your request for incident information which has been received by Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service (the Service) and considered under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.
The Service can advise that the information is held and is as per the attached document.
If you have any questions regarding your request, please contact Information Governance and Committee Services on tel: 0345 122 4454 or by e-mail informationrequests@hwfire.org.uk
In any such communication please include the reference number assigned (see above).
Should you have any queries regarding the management of your request and wish to make either a complaint or request a review of the information disclosed to you, please do so by using Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service’s complaints system: Comments and Complaints.
Further information on Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service may be viewed at the Service’s website: www.hwfire.org.uk
Kind regards,
Information Governance Team