Reference: FOI 037/23
Fires caused by disposable e-cigarettes and vapes
Received 20 March 2023
Request
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 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Response
| Year | Accidental | Deliberate | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| 2021 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 2022 | 4 | 11 | 15 |
| Total | 7 | 16 | 23 |
All the deliberate incidents happened in prisons or young offender units
Please note, we do not have a category for vapes and e-cigarettes, so the data above was obtained by performing a free text search in the control logs using the search “vapes” and “e-cigarette”.
The response to this request is subject to the limitations of the accuracy and completeness of the incident data provided by the personnel involved with the incidents and the limitations of the software for recording incidents. In addition, any incidents since 7 June 2022 may be inaccurate, incomplete or missing altogether, due to the Vision 4 upgrade implemented by West Midlands Fire Service.