Fires in Prison- A Neglected Issue of Safety ?

 

Statistics out today show an unwelcome uptick in fires in prison in the last financial year.[1] 

According to Home Office data, Fire and Rescue Services attended 840 incidents in prisons in England (plus a further 11 in what are referred to as Young Offender Units). For prisons, that’s almost 30% up on 2020-21, though thankfully lower than the year before Covid. The chart below shows pretty unclear trends over the last decade- unlike fires in hospitals (the yellow line) which have shown a slow but steady decline.

  

  

Fortunately, fatalities and casualties were reported in only about one in 10 fires, with "casualties" covering not only those with injuries requiring hospital attention or first aid at the scene but also those advised to have precautionary checks.

In the vast majority of fires, either no damage resulted, or it was limited to an area of less than 5 square metres. In most cases, evacuations were not necessary although on more than 180 occasions up to 5 people had to be “directed from a dangerous place to somewhere safe” and on one occasion more than 20 people.  In 170 incidents, people “received physical assistance to get clear of the area” involved.

More than nine out of ten prison fires were started deliberately with paper/cardboard and clothing/textiles being the commonest items ignited. Faulty apparatus or leads caused 17 of the accidental fires, misuse of equipment nine and “playing with fire” three. 

87% of fires were discovered immediately or within 5 minutes of starting, but 52 fires took between 5 and 30 minutes to discover. In 92% of incidents the fire service were called within 5 minutes. The first vehicle arrived within 5 minutes in 70% of incidents and within 20 in 97%.

While most prison fires look to be small scale and the response generally prompt, it is troubling but unsurprising to find that in 751 out of the 840 fires there was no fire safety system in place such as sprinklers. In 625 cases an alarm went off but in 81 there was no alarm and in 134 it did not operate or in fact raise an alarm.

Prisons chief Phil Copple told MPs in May that “we have about 35,000 prison places across the system that do not meet current fire regulation standards, and we have “temporary mitigations” in place agreed with the Crown Premises Fire Safety Inspectorate (CPFSI) to make sure that they can continue in use”. CPFSI enforces the 2005 Fire Safety Order in government buildings. This says that any person who has some level of control in premises must take reasonable steps to reduce the risk from fire and make sure people can safely escape if there is a fire.

In June, the Justice Committee asked then Prisons Minister Victoria Atkins about the temporary mitigations, and when she expected that all prison places will meet fire safety regulations. They haven’t had a reply – probably delayed due to the turnover of Ministers, the Committee has explained. CPFSI did tell me that the mitigation they accepted "related to single point smoke alarms for each individual cell. This was only a temporary measure until the programme to install automatic in cell fire detection is completed". CPFSI have previously reported that "it has proved to be a major managerial challenge for prison staff to prevent tampering and vandalism to these domestic smoke detectors."  

We know from Copple’s letter to the Assistant Coroner for Kent and Medway last year that the rollout of automatic fire safety systems across the estate “is forecast to be delivered and completed within the next five to seven years.” His letter was in response to the report of an Inquest into a prisoner who died in 2019 by smoke inhalation when a fire developed in his cell at HMP Swaleside. 

Copple told the Coroner that across the estate, interim safety measures are in place including- in addition to the portable fire detection devices in all cells that do not have automatic systems- more water mist firefighting equipment and portable smoke ventilation fans. There are annual inspections of fire safety equipment and of arson reduction strategies. There is improved staff training. 

The Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Styal in Cheshire has recently reported that as a result of an Enforcement Notice from CPFSI, the prison had to provide improved fire alarms and fire doors and remove all non-fire retardant furniture, bedding and soft furnishings. Moreover, "prison staff have endeavoured to reduce the fire risk for prisoners in the affected houses by implementing measures such as not locking them into their cells at night."

In his report, the Kent Coroner suggested that as another interim measure, in-cell fire detectors could be added to a small number of cells for prisoners that pose a higher risk of self-harm, barricading and fire setting. This was rejected by the Prison Service as "not feasible".  

I proposed last year that the Home Affairs and Justice Committees hold a short inquiry into fire safety in prisons and other places of detention. The latest figures add weight to the case for greater scrutiny of a neglected issue of safety. 

The Committees should also look at whether the CPFSI has the resources it needs. It has yet to publish an annual report for 2020-21, let alone 2021-22.

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[1] Prison data is available in the pivot tables in the “Other building fires dataset” https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fire-statistics-incident-level-datasets