Sheringham Tower diesel leak, 1 September 2026
Case reference FOI2026/01147
Received 15 September 2026
Published 6 October 2026
Request
I am making this request concerning Sheringham Tower, Baird Avenue, Southall, which was evacuated on 1 September 2026 following the discovery of a red diesel leak. Please provide any recorded information held by London Fire Brigade concerning this incident, including:
1. The incident log or incident report.
2. The time of the initial call, arrival at the building and completion of the Brigade's response.
3. The substance identified by firefighters and any recorded estimate of the quantity involved.
4. The recorded source or location of the leak. 5. Any hazards or risks identified by firefighters.
6. Any advice given to Ealing Council concerning evacuation, public safety or reoccupation.
7. Any information provided to or received from Ealing Council concerning the incident.
8. Any environmental or contamination concerns recorded by London Fire Brigade.
9. Any photographs or other records relating to the incident which can be disclosed.
Response
Please see my response to each of your requests in turn below:
The incident log or incident report.
LFB hold a record of attending a special service (non-fire incident) at Sheringham Tower, UB1 on 01 September 2026, the LFB incident number is 185509-01092026.
Incident reports are exempt from disclosure under the FOI act via section 21 - Information accessible to applicant by other means. Detailed information about accessing am incident report can be found on LFB's website here: https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/about-us/services-and-facilities/services-we-offer/incident-reports/ which should read alongside LFB's Information for which a charge is made policy.
The time of the initial call, arrival at the building and completion of the Brigade's response.
This information will be published online via the London Datastore ‘London Fire Brigade Mobilisation Records’ page which can be accessed using the following link:
https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/london-fire-brigade-mobilisation-records-24r65
LFB update the information published on the London Datastore regularly and intend to continue to publish the datasets listed above. If the information you seek is not yet currently published, we are not obliged, under section 22 of the FOIA, to provide information that is intended for future publication. Section 22 is a qualified exemption. This means that, even if the requested information falls within it, the I must go on to consider whether the public interest in maintaining the exemption is greater than the public interest in disclosing the information. As the information is of interest to the wider public it is important it can be accessed simultaneously by the general public rather than piecemeal by disclosure to a small number of individuals under the FOIA. Therefore, it is in the wider interest that information is accessible to the public by adhering to the publication schedule and, as such, any further information is withheld from disclosure at this current time.
The substance identified by firefighters and any recorded estimate of the quantity involved.
This information is recorded in the LFB incident report. Incident reports are exempt from disclosure under the FOI act via section 21 - Information accessible to applicant by other means. Detailed information about accessing am incident report can be found on LFB's website here: https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/about-us/services-and-facilities/services-we-offer/incident-reports/ which should read alongside LFB's Information for which a charge is made policy.
The recorded source or location of the leak.
This information is recorded in the LFB mobilisation report. Incident reports are exempt from disclosure under the FOI act via section 21 - Information accessible to applicant by other means. Detailed information about accessing am incident report can be found on LFB's website here: https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/about-us/services-and-facilities/services-we-offer/incident-reports/ which should read alongside LFB's Information for which a charge is made policy.
Any hazards or risks identified by firefighters.
Any hazardous materials identified by LFB would be recoded in the LFB incident reports. Incident reports are exempt from disclosure under the FOI act via section 21 - Information accessible to applicant by other means. Detailed information about accessing am incident report can be found on LFB's website here: https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/about-us/services-and-facilities/services-we-offer/incident-reports/ which should read alongside LFB's Information for which a charge is made policy.
Any advice given to Ealing Council concerning evacuation, public safety or reoccupation.
It is my understanding that the local authority (Ealing Council) was responsible for arranging clean up and any resident re-housing. Please see my response below in relation to any correspondence held relating to the incident.
Any information provided to or received from Ealing Council concerning the incident.
In order to locate any information held, I conducted and eDiscovery search for any correspondence/documents held by all LFB user accounts that matched the following criteria:
· Dated between 01 September 2026 (the date of the incident) and 15 September 2026 (the date of your request), AND;
· Contained the words “Sheringham Tower”, AND;
· Included participants with an email address ending in “@ealing.gov.uk”
This search returned a small amount of correspondence between LFB and Ealing Council. All correspondence that appears to be related to the special service incident on 01 September 2026 is provided in PDF document “FOI2026/01147_Disclosure (redacted)” in the ‘Documents’ section below. Please note, personal data has been redacted from this document under section 40 of the FOI act – personal information.
Any environmental or contamination concerns recorded by London Fire Brigade.
Any hazardous materials identified by LFB would be recoded in the LFB incident reports. Incident reports are exempt from disclosure under the FOI act via section 21 - Information accessible to applicant by other means. Detailed information about accessing am incident report can be found on LFB's website here: https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/about-us/services-and-facilities/services-we-offer/incident-reports/ which should read alongside LFB's Information for which a charge is made policy
Any photographs or other records relating to the incident which can be disclosed.
No photographs are listed on the Incident Management System (IMS) for this incident.
Documents
This is London Fire Brigade's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.