The Edinburgh postcodes in which police officers have received the most call-outs to incidents involving wilful fire raising have been revealed.
Information obtained through a Freedom of Information Act has revealed that throughout the whole of 2021, there were 403 incidents of wilful fire raising within Edinburgh, the Lothians and the Scottish Borders.
Within Edinburgh specifically, the number of incidents reported was 209.
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The one postcode that stood out within the capital for having the most recorded incidents, by far, was the EH4 postcode, which includes Blackhall, Davidson's Mains, Clermiston, Cramond, Pilton and Muirhouse.
This particular postcode recorded 58 incidents of wilful fire raising within 2021, the second most being EH16, with 22 incidents.
The EH16 postcode covers areas such as Liberton, Craigmiller, Niddrie and Cameron Toll.
Wilful fire raising is the act of deliberately setting fire to a persons property or an object, similar to arson. The local community has been plagued by wilful fire raising over the past year, with police officers and firefighters often being called out to tackle such incidents, that are all avoidable.
Superintendent Mark Rennie said: “Deliberately setting fires is incredibly reckless and can have tragic consequences.
“Every deliberate fire is thoroughly investigated and action taken against anyone identified as being responsible.
“We also work closely with partners, including the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, to deter and prevent fire-raising, as well educating people about the risks. We will continue with this work in order to reduce the number of incidents which do occur.”
The Edinburgh postcode that recorded one fewer incidents compared to EH16, was EH17, which covers Gilmerton, Moredun and extending to Mortonhall.
There were several postcodes that only recorded one incident of wilful fire raising. Officers were only called to EH28, EH29 and EH30 once each last year to deal with reports of wilful fire raising.
These areas are mainly on the outskirts of the city, covering Kirkliston, South Queensferry, Newbridge and Ratho.
Venturing further out of the city and looking at Midlothian, East Lothian and West Lothian, the majority of these crimes originated from West Lothian.
Postcodes EH47, EH48, EH49, EH52, EH53 and EH54, which covers most of West Lothian, including Bathgate, Linlithgow, Broxburn, Broxburn and Livingston, recorded 98 incidents between them, the most being from Livingston, with 31.
In Midlothian, postcodes EH18, EH19, EH20, EH22, EH23, and EH26, covering areas such as Bonnyrigg, Roswell, Roslin, Dalkeith, Gorebridge and Penicuik amounted for 36 incidents.
In East Lothian, there were only 27 reported incidents, covering areas such as Musselburgh, Tranent, Longniddry, North Berwick and Haddington. All remaining East Lothian locations had 0 incidents.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue service also commented on this data, saying that there was actually a slight decrease in incidents in 2021, compared to the data collected from 2017, but the numbers have started to climb back up already in 2022.
Stewart Nicholson, Deputy Assistant Chief Officer with SFRS said: "The five year data for deliberate Secondary Fires in Edinburgh shows a steady decrease from 1222 incidents in 2017 to 1034 in 2021. And although there has been a recent increase in activity in 2022, local Prevention and Protection teams are targeting areas of concern.
"Local Community Action Teams focus their attention on communities where there are high occurrences of deliberate fires and a recent Joint Partnership Patrol was set up with Police Scotland to reduce fire setting and violence to crews. Following the success of this project, it is now being rolled out to other areas of the city.
"Any deliberate fire incidents put our crews at risk and impact our availability to attend more serious incidents where members of the public are in need of rescue. SFRS is continuing to engage with local communities to reduce these types of incidents and we would urge people to remain vigilant and report any suspicious behaviour to the police."
Postcodes with most incidents
| EH4 | 58 |
| EH54 | 31 |
| EH47 | 22 |
| EH16 | 22 |
| EH17 | 21 |
| EH48 | 21 |
| EH11 | 17 |
| EH21 | 17 |
| EH14 | 16 |
| EH52 | 13 |
