Sharon Hodgson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what information the Government holds on the number of (a) domestic and (b) forest or woodland fires caused by the use of fireworks in each of the last five years.

Greg Clark

The figures in the table show that almost 750 fires attended by fire crews were recorded as having fireworks as the cause of ignition in either dwellings, other residential or forest/woodland fires over the past five years. However, the Department collects information on the source of ignition for primary fires only. Primary fires include all fires in buildings, vehicles and outdoor structures or any fire involving casualties, rescues or fires attended by five or more appliances. The definition also includes “woodland/forest/crops” but other similar land types (eg “grassland, pasture, grazing etc”) are considered secondary fires for which this information is not gathered.