Crimestoppers
Fearless
Tackling deliberate fire setting
Teaming up with fire services across the country to identify those starting fires and deter fire setting in local areas.Crimestoppers and UK Fire Services have been working together to keep communities safer since 2018.
FireStoppers currently forms part of the fire reduction strategy of ten fire and rescue services across the country.
The service
The FireStoppers service comprises a telephone number and online form providing a 24/7, 365-day-a-year way of passing on what you know about deliberate fire, arson, or attacks on fire crew or fire response vehicles. 100% anonymously.
The service is provided by Crimestoppers, working in conjunction with Fire Service partners, and is a proactive step towards safer neighbourhoods.
FireStoppers enables people to speak up, while giving them the peace of mind that nobody will ever know they have passed on what they know.
Objectives
FireStoppers has two main objectives:
- Giving people the power to keep their communities safer - encouraging those with information to speak up, 100% anonymously, to help fire services identify those starting fires or acting abusively towards those working to keep them safe.
- Reducing and deterring arson and abuse by making it too risky. If people can speak up anonymously, it is more likely those setting deliberate fires, or carrying out acts of violence towards the fire service, will be found out, so it may stop them doing it in the first place.
Partnerships
FireStoppers has gone from strength to strength in the last two years, signing up eight new Fire Service partners, with more showing interest in the initiative.
FireStoppers is seen as a positive fire reduction tool by key community stakeholders – local authorities, local councillors, landowners, local organisations with a vested interest in community safety, customer safety, and the environment, as well as the HMICFRS.
Outcomes
Within a year of sighing up to FireStoppers, County Durham and Darlington reported a 20% drop in primary fires and a 6% drop in secondary fires, following five years of year-on-year growth.
Having signed up to FireStoppers, Tyne and Wear saw a 10% drop in secondary fires in the first year, and a 20% drop in the second.
Following focused promotion of FireStoppers in hotspot areas, Derbyshire were able to deter deliberate fires around the Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend, following a number of weekends which saw incidents of deliberate fire.
Information received via the FireStoppers service has also led to positive action being taken by our Fire Service partners, and has led to a number of arrests.
