Fire Incidents Involving Vape & E-Cigarettes

Our Ref: NY10558

Date: 21/05/2026

Freedom of Information request reference number: NY10558
I write in connection with your request for information that was received by the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, Policing, Fire and Crime Directorate (PFC) on 18 May 2026

Request:

Please provide the following information for each of the last five calendar years: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

The number of fire incidents attended by your service where a vape, e-cigarette, disposable vape, or vape battery was recorded as the suspected or confirmed cause of fire.

Please include incidents identified through any relevant cause, ignition source, item first ignited, incident notes, or recorded free-text fields.

For each year, please provide the number of these incidents involving:
discarded disposable vapes
waste, bins, refuse vehicles, recycling centres, landfill, transfer stations, or waste facilities

For each year, please provide the total number of firefighter hours spent attending these incidents.
For each year, please provide the estimated cost of attending these incidents.

If incident-level cost data is not held, please provide any standard call-out cost, appliance cost, hourly firefighter cost, or internal costing formula used by your service.

Response:

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within the PFC.

I wish to advise you that there is no information held by the PFC in order to answer your request.

The information you are looking for may be held by North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service.

You can submit a freedom of information request to North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service using the below link:

Make a Request for Information – North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that the PFC’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.