Huge rise in number of deliberate ‘nuisance’ fires in Hartlepool

However, bosses Cleveland Fire Authority bosses said there is good news for its response to accidental house fires, and statistics show it is the ‘safest region in the country’.

The figures came as part of a presentation given to the Cleveland Fire Authority audit and governance committee detailing their performance from April 2018 to the end of January 2019.

It showed there have been 124 more deliberate fires in Hartlepool compared to the same period last year, a rise of 32% from 386, taking the total number of incidents in the town to 510.

Tim Graham, head of performance at Cleveland Fire Brigade said across the area the number of deliberate primary fires has gone down, although the number of secondary fires has increased, which he labelled ‘nuisance fires’.

He said: “Over the course of the 10 months there has been a reduction [across Cleveland] of 9% in the number of deliberate primary fires, and they tend to be anything of value, we’ve gone down from 354 to 321 deliberate primary fires.

“We’ve seen a 15% increase in number of deliberate secondary fires [across Cleveland] and those tend to be either rubbish and refuse fires or grass fires.

“The vast majority of deliberate fires are of a secondary nature or what we call nuisance fires and don’t cause a risk to life.

“Our primary aim is to keep people safe within the community.”

Apart from Middlesbrough, all of the other areas covered by Cleveland Fire Brigade all saw a rise in the number of deliberate fires.

However he said statistics showed Cleveland to be one of the safest place in the country to live, especially in regards to accidental fires.

He said figures published by the Home Office on national response times for every fire and rescue service show Cleveland is one of the fastest in the country in responding to a variety of incidents.

He added there had been a 20% reduction in the number of accidental dwelling fires in the current year, falling to 96, which have resulted in eight injuries and no fatalities.

Mr Graham said: “Across the board we’ve seen a reducing number of injuries and casualties.

“We have the lowest rate of accidental dwelling fires per head of population in the country and for the current year we’re on target to pass our best year ever in terms of numbers.

“Across the board our emergency response standards are showing exceptional performance.

“We can say with a degree in certainty that Cleveland is the safest place to live in terms of an accidental fire within the home.”

Additionally, so far this year fire authority has completed 15,268 home fire safety visits which includes 2,374 safe and well visits.

This equates to the third highest number of fires safety visits in the country per head of population, despite the fact the brigade is the fifth smallest in the country, Mr Graham said.

Nic Marko , Local Democracy Reporting Service