Date of Request
March 24
Request
Hi X,
Under the Freedom of Information Act, can you provide me with the following details please?
- How many incidents were HWFRS called out to in Herefordshire during 2023?
- Of these, can you break them down to incident types, e.g. fires, RTCs, flood-related incidents etc?
- Of the incidents listed, what was the average response time and how does this compare to the service’s targets?
- If HWFRS has category levels for response times, can you break them down?
Kind regards
Response
Good Morning
Thank you for your request for information, which has been received by Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service (the Service) and considered under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.
The Service can confirm that the answers to your questions as below:
1. How many incidents were HWFRS called out to in Herefordshire during 2023?
Between 01.01.2023 to 31.12.2023 the Service attended 1,704 incidents in Herefordshire.
2. Of these, can you break them down to incident types, e.g. fires, RTCs, flood-related incidents etc?
This included:
- 352 fires
- 204 primary fires,
- 110 secondary fires,
- 38 chimney fires;
- 854 false alarms
- 686 false alarms due to apparatus,
- 160 false alarms good intent,
- 8 malicious false alarms;
- 620 special services
- 6 advice only,
- 34 animal assistance,
- 70 assist other agencies,
- 100 effecting entry/exit,
- 5 evacuation (no fire),
- 30 flooding,
- 10 hazardous materials,
- 14 lift release,
- 16 making safe (not road traffic collision),
- 3 medical incident (co-responder),
- 5 medical incident (first responder),
- 27 no action (not false alarm),
- 11 other rescue / release of persons,
- 3 other transport incident,
- 16 removal of objects from people,
- 5 removal of people from objects,
- 42 rescue or evacuation from water,
- 189 road traffic collision,
- 12 spills and leaks (not road traffic collision),
- 0 standby,
- 22 suicide / attempts
- 0 water provision.
3. Of the incidents listed, what was the average response time and how does this compare to the service’s targets?
The new Attendance Performance Measure (APM) was introduced on 01.04.2023 following the public consultation and approval of the Hereford & Worcester Fire Authority.
Between 01.04.2023 and 31.12.2023, out of 1,704 incidents that occurred in Herefordshire, 409 incidents were examined (24% of the total).
Previous Attendance Standard , which measured the Service’s response to Primary Building Fires would only examine 117 incidents; hence an increase by 250%.
Out of 409 incidents, 125 did not meet the target response time calculated individually for three time zones of 10, 15 and 20 minutes (31% of the total).
The average response time for the examined 409 incidents was equal to 11 minutes and 12 seconds.
4. If HWFRS has category levels for response times, can you break them down?
Please find below & attached a breakdown of Service’s response for each time zone in Herefordshire in 2023 (April to December).
The average response time for:
- Time Zone 1 was 8 minutes 36 seconds – 222 incidents
- Time Zone 2 was 13 minutes 49 seconds – 150 incidents
- Time Zone 3 was 16 minutes 16 seconds – 37 incidents
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Further information on Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service may be viewed at the Service’s website: www.hwfire.org.uk
Thank you for your request for information.
Kind regards
Information Governance Team
