FOI release
Request for UK Electrical Substation Fire Incident Data
Case reference FOI2026/00722
Received 22 June 2026
Published 15 July 2026
Request
We are a fire engineering consultancy providing fire strategy services for electrical substations across the UK. We have delivered strategies for more than 30 substations in the past two years. We are currently reviewing best practice for firefighting methodologies within electrical substations, specifically regarding the use of water for controlling or extinguishing fires involving high-voltage equipment. To support the preparation of our current and future projects, we wish to request access to past substation fire incident data from your database. This data would be really helpful in developing practical fire strategy solutions for electrical substations. For previous substation fire incidents across the UK, we would be grateful to obtain the following details where available: • Type of equipment involved e.g. transformer, switchgear, quadrature booster, reactor • Identified cause of fire e.g. electrical fault • Time taken to isolate the affected equipment and allowing the fire service to enter the site • Firefighting method deployed e.g. water, foam-defensive cooling only, controlled burn-out, or no action • Outcome of the incident e.g. extent of damage , environmental impact, injuries/fatalities If you are able to share this data, or direct us to the appropriate publicly available resources, it would greatly assist our analysis and help ensure realistic fire safety design. Many thanks,
Response
Please see the response in the 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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