House fires rise but deliberate blazes decrease - what covid months have meant for Hartlepool's fire brigade

This includes a drop in the number of deliberate fires involving rubbish and grassland, known as secondary fires.

In total around 5,700 calls were received by Cleveland Fire Brigade’s control room from April to September this year, a 19% reduction on the number of calls received in the equivalent period last year.

Firefighters attended over 4,000 incidents during this period, but this was again a 17% reduction in demand compared to last year.

During the six months 1,552 deliberate secondary fires were recorded across Cleveland, a drop of 552 incidents and 26% compared to the same period last year.

However Ian Hayton, chief fire officer at Cleveland Fire Brigade, warned the area still has the highest rate of deliberate secondary fires in the country, and work is ongoing to decrease this, with arson reduction strategies in place.

He gave the updates to the Cleveland Fire Authority Executive Committee at their latest meeting.

My Hayton said: “It’s a changing picture in relation of how Covid has affected the operational performance of the fire authority in the first six months of the year.

“Generally there is a decrease [in the number of incidents] across the board.

“We know that we are blighted by deliberate second fires. Our deliberate secondary fires over the last six months has reduced over 26% which is clearly a positive picture on the previous year.

“But we look clearly at longer term trends. We have the highest rate of deliberate secondary fires in the country. There is no other authority area that has a higher rate."

He added: “The trend over the last five years, nationally the trend is that there is a 6% decrease. The trend in this authority area over the last 5 years is a 29% increase, so we have an increasing issue in relation to deliberate secondary fires.”

RELATED: The £2.9million cost of arson in Hartlepool after more than 600 deliberate fires in town

Deliberate primary fires, which are more serious incidents harming people or causing damage to property, also decreased during this period by 5% to 207.

However there was a rise in accidental dwelling fires during the period, with 78 incidents recorded, up 11 incidents and 16% compared to last year.

Cleveland has the second lowest rate of accidental dwelling fires in the country, behind only Warwickshire, but fire brigade chiefs stressed they cannot be complacent.

Mr Hayton said: “As you can appreciate people are locked down, they were certainly locked down in March, April, May time this year and now latterly. Our accidental dwelling fires have regrettably increased 16% on a year by year basis.

“Looking at the five year trend, the five year trend nationally is a 10% reduction, the five year trend for ourselves is a 19% increase.

“Again, even though we have the second lowest rate we can’t rest on our laurels because clearly this is the area in which people lose their lives or get injured.”

It was also reported there had been a 100% increase in injuries occurred during accidental dwelling fires compared to the same period last year, with 15 recorded from April to September.

However Mr Hayton said nine of those relate to an incident in Hartlepool, where firefighters did an ‘extremely good job’ to save their lives.

He said: “Nine of those relate to an incident in Hartlepool where the firefighters rescued nine members of the public from one incident.

“From an emergency response perspective [it is] an extremely good job, in terms of they’ve done their job and saved those people.”

Support your Mail and become a subscriber today. Enjoy unlimited access to local news, the latest on Pools and new puzzles every day. With a digital subscription, you can see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Click here to subscribe.