June 23, 2023 2.00 pm This story is over 14 months old

Humberside Fire and Rescue called to more than 3000 deliberate fires last year

A major incident was briefly declared
| Photo: Stock image

Humberside Fire and Rescue Service handled over 3,000 deliberate fire incidents in a year.

The fire authority’s unaudited accounts for April 2022 to March 23 have recently been published. These include figures for firefighter incident call-outs.

There were 468 total deliberate fires handled throughout the year and a separate count of 2,681 deliberate secondary fires.

Deliberate fires are ones where it is known, thought or suspected to have been caused deliberately, but are not the same as arson. Secondary fires do not involve property, casualties or rescues.

Aside from deliberate fires, Humberside Fire and Rescue also handled 359 accidental property fires and 882 false alarm, non-domestic incidents. In total, fire and rescue were called out to 4,390 key incidents in 2022/23.

Labelled in red as “performance that is a concern and needs addressing” included the number of deliberate secondary fires in April to August 2022, and total deliberate fires in July to September and March 2023. Humberside Fire & Rescue declared briefly a major incident in July due to the sheer number of call-outs.

Performance targets for the fire service were more than met. There are expected response times dependent on incident urgency, with highest risk within eight minutes.

The first engine in attendance at incidents aims to meet the expected response times at least nine times out of ten. Last year, the first engine to a scene did that 96% of the time.

Humberside Fire Authority has suffered an £11.5m cut to external funding since 2011/12. But thanks to savings of £11.5m made between 2011 and 2019, it has historically managed to live within its means and underspent in recent years.

The unaudited 2022/23 accounts indicate the trend continued with an underspend of just under £450,000. It is also stated the fire authority financial position in the medium term is sound.

This will be continually reviewed in case of cost pressures such as pay awards and inflation. Four individuals were paid salaries of more than £100,000, up one from the previous year.