Newham residents can now keep track of incidents in their borough with the launch of an online fire map by the London Fire Brigade.

The map went live on the Brigade’s new Facebook page yesterday (May 24) and shows people how many fires, traffic incidents and other incidents firefighters have been called to in their area in the last year.

It is the UK’s first fire map and is based on the crime map launched by the Metropolitan Police two years ago.

People can type in their postcode to see figures for incidents in their area and whether it is more likely than other parts of the capital to have fires, arson attacks or hoax calls.

Boroughs and wards are also colour coded according to whether they are above or below average. The Brigade hopes the map will encourage residents, businesses and councils in places with a higher number of incidents to take action to make their area safer.

The Brigade’s Borough Commander for Newham Wayne Brown said: “London’s firefighters have done an excellent job of making the capital safer in recent years but there are still some areas that are having too many fires.

“The map shows that fires happen each and every day across London – what better incentive could there be for people to make sure it doesn’t happen to them?”