Appeal to help reduce deliberately started car fires

Date published: 30/01/2006

Greater Manchester’s County Fire Officer (CFO) Barry Dixon is appealing to the residents of Greater Manchester to help reduce the number of deliberately started car fires in the region.

Latest figures show that there were 3535 deliberately started vehicle fires in the County during 2005 compared to 3967 in 2004 - 356 of them in Rochdale.

Figures produced by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister state that the average cost of a car fire is approx. £5100, if you take into account the cost of the vehicle, insurance claims, removal costs, police investigations etc.

This equates to a cost to society of £18,028,500 in Greater Manchester.

Local Borough Commander Dave Astley said: “Although these figures are disconcerting, there has been a significant reduction in these types of fire thanks to the efforts of the police, local authorities and ourselves. Schemes such as the Fast Track removal of vehicles aim to remove abandoned cars from our streets as quickly as possible and we firmly believe that this has contributed to the reduction in incidents. There is still however a significant role the public can play in helping to reduce this staggering cost of £18 million.”

CFO Dixon has appealed to Greater Manchester residents to be vigilant and report thefts of vehicles and any abandoned cars as quickly as possible before they have chance to become a fire statistic.

The implications of deliberate vehicle fires are:

• Increase in insurance costs
• Environmental impacts of the smoke from a fire
• Burnt out vehicles become a blot on the landscape and are a dangerous attraction to young children
• Waste of fire service resources
• Huge costs to society

CFO Dixon gave the following advice as to how people can help to reduce the problem:

• Make sure your car is securely locked and where possible fitted with an intruder alarm
• Report any theft of a vehicle as quickly as possible
• If you believe a vehicle has been abandoned report it to the police before it becomes a fire statistic, in some cases abandoned vehicles can be removed within hours of being reported.
• If you witness any such crimes in your area you can contact the police or Crimestoppers anonymously and free of charge on 0800 555 111