Cause of fire in retail premises

I’m writing to request your help under the Freedom of Information act to identify the causes of fires in retail premises, as identified in incident reports or other records. I’m specifically interested in convenience stores and newsagents but I understand the way data is held is likely to make such a specific request an unfair burden on your resources as it could require manual searching and identification of premises types.

Specifically, I have concern that poor upkeep of commercial refrigerators in these premises may be a leading cause of incidents.

On this basis, please could I request the following:

• The premises name, cause of fire and date of incident for all fires in retail premises occurring between 1 July 2019 and 1 July 2020.
• Where the cause of fire is a refrigeration system, please could I receive the make and model number of the chiller, if recorded.

Please note, if you are minded to apply a section 43 Commercial Interest exemption, I would request to see the full public interest test. This should take into account the clear public interest in identifying, highlighting and hopefully preventing these incidents. It should weigh this against that there is very little commercial damage from the publication of this information – it is unlikely to harm the entity’s reputation or to reveal information that may harm their ability to compete.