Decision Report 201503219

Summary

Mr C complained about the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) after they extinguished a fire he had set to dispose of garden waste. They had received a call from a member of public to say that the fire was in a public park. However, Mr C informed them that the fire was actually on his property, which borders the park. The decision was taken to extinguish the fire nonetheless, as they considered that there was the risk of repeat calls requiring further emergency responses.

We found that decisions to extinguish controlled fires are taken at the discretion of the attending officers. As there was no evidence of administrative or service failure in the decision-making process, we found that the decision to extinguish the fire was a discretionary one the SFRS were entitled to take, and that they had acted reasonably in making this decision.