Commercial and Industrial Building Fires
Commercial and industrial building fires
Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service rate of non-domestic fires per 1,000 population is lower than the national average (1.92 compared to 2.22).
- There was an average of 116 fires in non-domestic premises per year over the five-year period, although a 14% reduction in 2022-23 compared to the previous year
- Sleeping-use premises have higher rates of fire per 1,000 known premises than non-sleeping premises
- BFRS use of formal enforcement has increased significantly over the five-year period with 42 Prohibition notices issued in 2022-23 of which 18 remained in force at year end
- Following a review of our method for determining risk, a new data warehouse has been built to compare overall risk levels by pooling our sources of information together, and this will continue to be refined in 2023-24
- BFRS specialist fire safety regulators complete around 600 audits per year and operational staff undertake around 1200 basic fire safety checks
- There continues to be a significant deliberate fire problem at HMP Bedford (enforcement of the Fire Safety Order for HMP Bedford is undertaken by Crown Premises Fire Inspectorate)
- Shops, factories, and offices are the most common type of non-domestic premises accounting for around half of the total number of premises in Bedfordshire
- There is a five-year average of 26 fires per year in high rise residential buildings, however the 2022-23 numbers were lower at 23
- An estimated 10,500 Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) exist in our area, with 1,500 meeting the criteria for mandatory licensing
- There are HMO sub-standard accommodation issues across the county
- BFRS served 27 prohibition notices on HMOs in 2022-23. This compares with a total of 13 in the five-year period 2016/17 to 2020/21