Freedom of Information Request – Fire Incident Dataset
Case reference FOI2026/00608
Received 27 May 2026
Published 13 July 2026
Request
I would like to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and, where applicable, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. We are undertaking analysis of fire incidents across the UK, with a particular interest in emerging fire risks such as solar photovoltaic systems, battery energy storage systems, lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicles, e-bikes, e-scooters, and related technologies. However, we would also like to understand these incidents in the broader context of all recorded fire incidents. Please provide the following information for all fire incidents attended by London Fire Brigade between: 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2025 If 2025 data is incomplete or not yet finalised, please provide the latest available data and indicate the date range covered. ROUTING REQUEST If this request has been sent to the wrong mailbox, please forward it to the appropriate Freedom of Information, Environmental Information Regulations, Information Governance, or Data Protection team within your organisation. If your organisation does not hold the requested information, please confirm this and, where possible, advise which public authority is likely to hold it. Please acknowledge receipt of this request and confirm whether it has been forwarded internally or externally. REQUESTED DATASET Please provide one row per incident, where held, with the following fields: Incident_ID_Pseudonymised Related_Primary_Incident_ID Incident_Link_Type Incident_Date_Time Fire_Category Primary_Fire_Subcategory Property_Type Premises_Type Domestic_or_NonDomestic Motive Cause_Category Source_of_Ignition Item_First_Ignited Main_Item_Responsible_For_Spread Relevant_Technology Subcategory Confirmed_or_Suspected Cause_Role Postcode_Unit LAD_Code Easting_Rounded_1km Northing_Rounded_1km Injuries Fatalities Rescues Evacuations Damage_Extent Number_of_Appliances_Attending Incident_Duration_Minutes FIELD DESCRIPTIONS Please interpret these fields as follows, or provide the closest equivalent fields held in your incident recording system. Incident_ID_Pseudonymised: A non-identifying incident reference. Please do not provide original incident numbers if these are considered sensitive. Related_Primary_Incident_ID: Where held, a pseudonymised identifier linking a secondary fire, reignition, duplicate, or related incident to a primary fire or wider incident. Incident_Link_Type: The relationship between linked incidents, for example secondary linked to primary fire, reignition/repeat attendance, duplicate/merged incident, same event/multi-incident scene, exposure fire/spread from another incident, or not linked. Incident_Date_Time: Date and time of the incident, where disclosable. If exact time is too granular, please provide incident date only, month/year, or a broad time band. Fire_Category: Primary fire, secondary fire, chimney fire, or closest equivalent. Primary_Fire_Subcategory: Dwelling, other building, road vehicle, other outdoor, not applicable, or closest equivalent. Property_Type: Broad property or location type. Premises_Type: More specific premises description, where held. Domestic_or_NonDomestic: Domestic, non-domestic, vehicle, outdoor, or unknown. Motive: Accidental, deliberate, unknown, or closest equivalent. Cause_Category: Broad cause category, as recorded. Source_of_Ignition: Recorded source of ignition, where held. Item_First_Ignited: First item or material ignited, where held. Main_Item_Responsible_For_Spread: Main item responsible for fire spread, where held. Relevant_Technology: Any recorded involvement of solar PV, battery storage, lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicles, e-bikes, e-scooters, mobility scooters, vapes, power banks, power tools, waste/recycling batteries, or other relevant emerging technologies. If none is identified, please mark as "None identified". Subcategory: More specific technology/product/component involved, where relevant. Confirmed_or_Suspected: Whether the technology involvement was confirmed, suspected, mentioned only, not applicable, or unknown. Cause_Role: Whether the technology was the cause of fire, suspected cause, item first ignited, source of ignition, contributing factor, present but not causal, exposed to fire, not applicable, or unknown. Postcode_Unit: Full postcode unit, where disclosure is permitted. LAD_Code: Local Authority District code for the incident location. Easting_Rounded_1km: British National Grid easting rounded to the nearest 1km. Northing_Rounded_1km: British National Grid northing rounded to the nearest 1km. Injuries: Number of recorded injuries. Fatalities: Number of recorded fatalities. Rescues: Number of recorded rescues, where held. Evacuations: Number of people evacuated, where held. Damage_Extent: Recorded extent of fire damage or spread, where held. Number_of_Appliances_Attending: Number of fire appliances attending, where held. Incident_Duration_Minutes: Incident duration in minutes, where held. GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION For each incident, please provide the most granular geographic identifier that can be disclosed. My preference order is: 1. postcode unit; 2. Local Authority District code; 3. rounded easting and northing coordinates to the nearest 1km. I do not require full addresses, house numbers, street names, occupier names, exact coordinates, names of individuals, original incident numbers, or any other directly identifying personal information. If postcode unit is considered too granular for disclosure, please provide LAD_Code and Easting_Rounded_1km / Northing_Rounded_1km instead. RELEVANT TECHNOLOGY CLASSIFICATION Where your records identify or mention relevant technologies, please classify them using your own recorded categories where available. Technologies of interest include, but are not limited to: Solar PV Battery energy storage system Lithium-ion battery Electric vehicle E-bike E-scooter Mobility scooter Power tool battery Mobile phone / tablet / laptop battery Vape / e-cigarette battery Power bank Waste / recycling battery Industrial battery system Unknown rechargeable battery Other technology None identified Unknown Relevant subcategories may include, where held: Domestic rooftop solar PV Commercial rooftop solar PV Ground-mounted solar PV Solar farm Solar inverter Solar panel / module DC isolator DC cabling / connector Solar PV battery storage Domestic battery energy storage system Commercial battery energy storage system Grid-scale battery energy storage system E-bike battery E-bike charger E-bike conversion kit E-scooter battery E-scooter charger Electric vehicle battery Mobility scooter battery Power tool battery Garden tool battery Laptop battery Mobile phone battery Tablet battery Vape / disposable vape Power bank Battery charger Loose battery cells Battery in waste bin Battery in refuse vehicle Battery at recycling centre Unknown battery product Other Unknown If these are not held as structured fields, please do not manually classify every incident. Instead, please provide any relevant structured cause, source of ignition, item first ignited, and free-text-search-derived indicators that are reasonably retrievable within the statutory cost limit. LINKED INCIDENTS Where an incident is recorded as linked to another incident, please provide a pseudonymised linked incident identifier. In particular, where a secondary fire is recorded as associated with, caused by, or linked to a primary fire, please provide the pseudonymised primary fire incident ID in Related_Primary_Incident_ID. If this linkage is not held in a structured format, please mark the field as "Not held" rather than manually deriving it. FORMAT REQUESTED Please provide the data in CSV or Excel format. If possible, please include a brief data dictionary explaining any local codes or categories used. COST-LIMIT ADVICE If providing incident-level data for all fire incidents would exceed the statutory cost limit, please provide advice and assistance on how the request could be refined. In that case, I would be grateful if you could prioritise one of the following options: 1. provide incident-level data only for incidents involving or mentioning the relevant technologies listed above; and/or 2. provide all other fire incidents in aggregated form by year, LAD code, fire category, property type, motive, cause category, injuries and fatalities; and/or 3. provide a reduced date range, beginning with the most recent complete year of data. Please let me know if any part of the request requires clarification.
Response
Please see the response in the attached link below.
Documents
This is London Fire Brigade's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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