Vape on fire in Newport sparks call to firefighters
Firefighters were called to Newport town centre after reports of an on-fire vape device.
The Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service was called to New Street in Newport at around 12.32pm today (August 28) after receiving reports of a vape on fire.
A crew from Newport fire station was sent to the scene, where they immersed the vape in a bucket of water to extinguish the fire.
The stop message, which indicates the scene was under control, was received at 12.46pm.
Earlier this year, online vape store The Electric Tobacconist conducted a Freedom of Information request to all 39 fire services in the UK to reveal the number of vape-related fires in recent years.
The data showed that from 2020 to 2024, there had been an increase in vape-related fires from 89 reports in 2020 to 399 in 2024.
In total, 1,056 fires relating to vapes were recorded across the fire and rescue services - that's one fire almost every other day since 2020.
