Gofynner am/
Please ask for: Information Governance
and Compliance
Tel:
01443232355
E-bost/E-mail: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Our ref:
IG002385
Dyddiad/Date:
11th September 2023
RE: Request for Information held by SWFRS.
Your request ref:
IG002385 has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
You asked us:
Please 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 2022 and 31st July 2023?
In the same period, how many fires occurred where balconies where 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.
Our response:
Scope: Incidents attended by SWFRS from 01/08/2022 to 31/07/2023 recorded on the Incident
Recording System (IRS).
We do not specifically list balconies on our list of locations where a fire starts – a search was carried
out to identify all incidents where the word ‘balcony’ appeared.
Data: Incident report based on data extracted from SWFRS IRS on 14/08/2023 – data may be subject
to change pending validation of IRS incident records.
Report criteria: Incident date = 01/08/2022 to 31/07/2023, Incident category = Fire, Text search =
‘Balcony’
REPORT AND STATISTICS
3 fires involving balconies occurred between 01/08/2022 – 31/07/2023.
Cause
Total
Smoking related - careless disposal of smoking
3
materials
We are not able to respond to the query regarding fire spread due to balconies as our Information
Recording System does not record this information.
If you have any queries regarding your information request, please contact us at
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx quoting the reference number above in any future
communication.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling or outcome of your information request, you have the right to
ask for an internal review. An internal review will consider whether the handling or outcome of your
request was appropriate, in line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and/or the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004.
Internal review requests should be submitted to the Information Governance & Compliance Officer.
You can submit a request by e-mail or letter to:
•
Email: InformationGovernance@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xx
•
Mail: Information Governance & Compliance Officer, South Wales Fire and Rescue Services
HQ, Forest View Business Park, Llantrisant, CF72 8LX
Internal reviews wil be conducted by the Senior Information Risk Owner, or their deputy. We aim to
respond within 20 working days of the receipt of the request for an internal review.
If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the review, then you may seek a review by the Information
Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”), which has the powers to uphold or overturn the decision. Please see
ICO contact information below. South Wales Fire and Rescue Service wil abide by the decisions of
the ICO unless it considers itself to have grounds for an appeal to the First-Tier Tribunal (Information
Rights).
•
Website: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/
•
Email: xxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
•
Mail: Information Commissioner’s Of ice, Wycliffe House, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
•
Telephone: 0303123113
Please be aware that the ICO wil be unlikely to accept a complaint until you have first been through
our internal complaint’s procedure first.
Yours Faithfully,
Information Governance and Compliance
InformationGovernance@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xx
