Firefighters release blaze statistics

Firefighters tackled over 440 deliberate fires that were set in West Lothian over a six-month period this year.

scottish Fire and rescue service (sFrs) attended a total of 448 deliberate fires between april and september with a large volume of these incidents involving rubbish, woodland areas, grassland and derelict buildings.

shockingly, this figure is a reduction of 16 per cent from the same period in 2017, where firefighters were called to 537 deliberate fires.

david Lockhart, the scottish Fire and rescue service’s local senior officer for Falkirk and West Lothian, said:“Every deliberate fire has victims, costs and consequences and we therefore take a zero tolerance approach to this unacceptable behaviour.

“We will continue to work closely with our partners and our communities to prevent deliberate fires and educate people on the very clear dangers and consequences.”

Firefighters were praised for their work in reducing the number of fires as the number of accidental house fires in the region also fell.

Figures revealed during a meeting with West Lothian Council’s services for Communities, policy development and scrutiny panel this week showed a reduction in the number of accidental house fires from 82 to 76.

sFrs crews in West Lothian carried out more than 1,000 home fire safety visits (HFsV) during the six-month period.

Lso Lockhart said:“there is a clear link between fire-related casualties and accidental dwelling fires. that is why we make such a concerted effort in the provision of Home Fire safety Visits to ensure everyone has adequate fire detection in place.

“We want everyone to be safe in their homes and cannot stress enough the importance of having a working smoke alarm.

“if fire breaks out, a smoke or heat alarm will give you valuable early warning to react and reach a place of safety. and, if you are sleeping, a working alarm could be absolutely vital.”

West Lothian crews also attended over 500 unwanted fire alarm signals (UFas) which can be caused by equipment failure, malicious false alarms, or false alarms with good intent.

Lso Lockhart said:“Ensuring that businesses and duty holders manage their fire alarm systems effectively can help us reduce the number of unwanted fire alarm signals.”