Vaping Devices Implicated in Rise of Prison Fires

A fire authority meeting has been informed that inmates in West Yorkshire prisons have been using vaping devices to ignite fires. Since April, Leeds has seen a 23% increase in deliberately started non-residential fires, with incidents occurring in prisons constituting the majority of this rise. The West Yorkshire Fire Authority meeting was told that these occurrences were frequently connected to drug debts or prisoners attempting to transfer to different cells. Scott Donegan, area manager for prevention and response at West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, stated that the organization had “linked in with Manchester prison service to look at how they deal with the issue in their prisons.” Mr. Donegan informed the meeting on Friday that firefighters had been called to 43 more deliberate non-residential fires this year compared to 2023. He added, “A lot of the incidents in youth offender institutes are linked to vapes.” He also commented that individuals in prison could be “very inventive,” and Mr. Donegan further remarked, “If you take away what they are using now they will find something else.” The fire authority board is composed of councillors from Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield. According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, firefighters conveyed to the meeting their concerns about the impact of removing vaping devices from inmates, despite the increase in incidents at prisons. Mr. Donegan stated, “There is a balance, you have to think about how taking these items off them might effect the management of the prison population.” The meeting also heard that while deliberate non-domestic fires had increased in Leeds, a decrease in such incidents was observed in other areas. Specifically, Bradford experienced a 21% drop, and Kirklees recorded a 41% reduction.