Accredited official statistics

Detailed analysis of fires and response times to fires attended by fire and rescue services, England, April 2024 to March 2025

Published 14 August 2025

Applies to England

Frequency of release: Annual

Forthcoming releases: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government statistics release calendar

MHCLG responsible statistician: William Bagridge

Press enquiries: NewsDesk@communities.gov.uk

Public enquiries: firestatistics@communities.gov.uk

This release presents more detailed analysis on fire incidents and response times to fires, which occurred in the year ending March 2025 (1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025) for fire and rescue services (FRSs) in England. For summary statistics and trends please refer to Fire and rescue incident statistics: England, year ending March 2025.

The statistics on fire incidents, victims of fires and response times to fires are sourced from the MHCLG’s online Incident Recording System (IRS). The statistics on smoke alarms are sourced from the English Housing Survey (EHS), see 11. Further Information for more information.

As the IRS is a continually updated database, the statistics published in this release may not match those held locally by FRSs and revisions may occur in the future (see the revisions section for further detail). This may be particularly relevant for fire-related fatalities, where a coroner’s report could lead to revisions in the data some time after the incident. It should also be noted that the numbers of fire-related fatalities are prone to year-on-year fluctuations, due to relatively low numbers. The year ending March 2018 had a particularly high number of fire-related fatalities due to the Grenfell Tower fire, though this year is not one of the comparator years in this release. On 4th September 2024, the final report of the inquiry was published. The findings of this report may affect future statistics that include the Grenfell Tower fire.

All fire-related Ministerial responsibilities moved from the Home Office to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) on 1 April 2025. This change followed a key recommendation from the Phase 2 report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, to bring all fire safety functions under one department. Therefore, as part of this move, all statistical publications and analysis on fire functions were also subject to the Machinery of Government (MoG) change.

Key results

In the year ending March 2025, there were:

• 142,494 fires attended by FRSs in England, an increase of 2.5% compared with the year ending March 2024 (138,973), a decrease of 7.6% compared with 5 years ago (154,190) and a decrease of 8.1% compared with 10 years ago (155,063). Source: FIRE0102
• 271 fire-related fatalities, an increase of 8.0% compared with the previous year (251), an increase of 12% compared with 5 years ago (243), an increase of 2.7% compared with 10 years ago (264). Source: FIRE0502
• 13.8 fatalities per million people for those aged 80 years old and over, compared with 4.5 fire-related fatalities per million people of all ages. Source: FIRE0503
• 5.9 per million population for men of all ages compared with 3.1 per million for women of all ages. Source: FIRE0503

Figure KR.1: Fire-related fatality rate per million population

• the average response time to primary fires was 9 minutes and 6 seconds: an increase of 3 seconds compared with the previous year. Source: FIRE1001
• the largest component was drive time (68%), which showed an increase of 3 seconds to 6 minutes and 11 seconds. Source: FIRE1001

Figure KR.2: Response times to primary fires by component

1. Overview of fires attended

1.1 Key results

In the year ending March 2025:

• fires accounted for 24% of the 603,942 incidents attended by FRSs compared with 23% in the previous year, 28% 5 years ago and 31% 10 years ago; Source: FIRE0102
• there were 83,513 outdoor fires, an increase of 5.3% compared with the previous year (79,277), a decrease of 4.7% compared with 5 years ago (87,643) and virtually unchanged compared with 10 years ago (83,505) (see Seasonal fire analyses)
• the month with the most fires attended by FRSs per day was August 2024 (an average of 538.0), in comparison the month with the most fires in year ending March 2024 was June 2023 (an average of 620.2); Source FIRE0802

Fire incidents are broadly categorised as primary, secondary or chimney fires, depending on the location, severity and risk levels of the fire, and on the scale of response needed from FRSs to contain them. Primary fires are those considered to be the most serious or with a threat to life or property. See Fire statistics definitions guidance for detailed definitions of types of fires.

1.2 Trends in fire incidents

The total number of fires attended by FRSs decreased for around a decade - falling by around two-thirds from a peak of around 474,000 in the year ending March 2004 to around 154,000 in the year ending March 2013. The total number of fires has fluctuated annually since year ending March 2013 between 150,000 and 185,000, with the peak in the year ending March 2019, due to the hot, dry summer of 2018.

Although the year ending March 2021 had the lowest figure recorded, since comparable statistics became available in the year ending March 1996, this was likely because of the impact of restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (see figure 1.1).

Table 1: Number of fires, comparing the year ending March 2025 with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Incident Type	Year ending March 2025	Year ending March 2024	1-year change	Year ending March 2020	5-year change	Year ending March 2015	10-year change
Fires	142,494	138,973	2.5%	154,190	-7.6%	155,063	-8.1%
Primary fires	61,649	61,968	-0.5%	68,781	-10%	71,101	-13%
Dwellings fires	25,334	25,588	-1.0%	28,504	-11%	31,331	-19%
Accidental dwelling fires	22,877	23,000	-0.5%	25,532	-10%	28,319	-19%
Road vehicle fires	18,494	18,675	-1.0%	20,568	-10%	19,478	-5.1%
Other building fires	13,134	13,297	-1.2%	14,331	-8.4%	15,559	-16%
Outdoor primary fires	4,687	4,408	6.3%	5,378	-13%	4,733	-1.0%
Secondary fires	78,826	74,869	5.3%	82,265	-4.2%	78,772	0.1%
Chimney Fires	2,019	2,136	-5.5%	3,144	-36%	5,190	-61%

Source: MHCLG, FIRE0102, FIRE0202

Figure 1.1: Fires attended by type of fire, England; the year ending March 2015 to the year ending March 2025

Source: FIRE0102

Seasonal fire analyses

Very little seasonality was evident in dwelling fires, but other buildings and road vehicle fires showed a small increase in the summer months. Primary outdoor, secondary and chimney fires showed much stronger seasonal effects. There tends to be more grassland, refuse and other outdoor fires in the summer months and these seem to reflect weather patterns (see FIRE0802). Conversely, chimney fires are more numerous in the winter months. These seasonal effects are broadly similar each year but are affected by changes in weather patterns specific to that year, for example in the year ending March 2025 the average number of fires per day peaked in August (538.0), while in the previous year they were highest in June (620.2).

Figure 1.2 shows the average daily number of different types of fires in the year ending March 2025. It shows how stable the number of dwelling, other building and road vehicle fires are across months, compared with seasonal outdoor fires and, to a lesser extent, chimney fires. Due to a hot and dry spring (Source: Met Office) a large number of average daily fire incidents are seen in March 2025 (481.5), much higher than the previous year (296.5).

Figure 1.2: Average daily fire incidents by month and location, England; the year ending March 2025

Source: MHCLG, FIRE0802

The daily rate of all fires for the year ending March 2025 was 390.4 fires per day, of which 228.8 per day (59%) were outdoor fires. This daily rate was a 2.8% increase when compared with the previous year which had an average of 379.7 fires per day, of which 216.6 fires per day (57%) were outdoor fires. (Source: Met Office).

Figure 1.3 shows the number of outdoor fires attended across each month over the last 5 years. The quarter January to March 2025 shows a large number of outdoor fires. This is similar to the quarter January to March 2023, with both quarters being influenced by a hot, dry spring.

The largest number of outdoor fires attended for a quarter in year ending March 2025 was in July to September 2024 (26,842); in comparison in year ending March 2024, April to June 2023 (30,191) was the highest quarterly figure for that year. Through the timeseries, the quarter April to June usually has the highest number of outdoor fire incidents. The quarter January to March 2025 had more outdoor fires than the previous year (18,140). The quarter October to December 2024 also had more outdoor fires than the previous year (16,885). (Source: FIRE0802).

Figure 1.3: Outdoor fires attended by month, England; year ending March 2021 to year ending March 2025

Source: MHCLG, FIRE0802

Temporal fire analyses

For each of the 7 individual hours from 15:00 and 22:00 (by time of call), the highest proportion of fires occurred, which was also consistent with all previous years. These 7 hours accounted for over 50% of fire incidents. The peak hours were between 17:00 and 21:00, with each hour accounting for more than 8% of fires in the year ending March 2025, similar to previous years. (Source: FIRE0801)

The number of fire-related fatalities by hour showed less of a pattern across the day, but did show peaks during the night. The hours with the highest proportion of fire-related fatalities were between 12:00 to 13:00 and 21:00 to 22:00 with each accounting for 5.9% of fire-related fatalities.

Figure 1.4 Percentage of fires and fire-related fatalities by hour of the day, England; the year ending March 2025

Source: MHCLG, FIRE0801

2. Fire-related fatalities, non-fatal casualties, rescues, and evacuations

2.1 Key results

In the year ending March 2025:

• there were 271 fire-related fatalities, an increase of 8.0% compared to year ending March 2024 (251); Source: FIRE0502
• men had a greater likelihood of dying in a fire than women (5.9 per million population for males compared with 3.1 per million for females); Source: FIRE0503
• there were 2,958 people rescued from fires, an increase of 3.9% compared to year ending March 2024 (2,848); Source: FIRE0511
• there were 4,112 fire incidents involving an evacuation, a decrease of 1.3% compared to year ending March 2024 (4,165); Source: FIRE0511

The key results of fire-related fatalities, non-fatal casualties, rescues, and fire-related incidents involving an evacuation have been summarised in table 2.1 below.

Table 2.1 Number of fatal fires, fire-related fatalities, non-fatal casualties, rescues, and fire incidents involving an evacuation, comparing the year ending March 2025 with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Victim type	Year ending March 2025	Year ending March 2024	1-year change	Year ending March 2020	5-year change	Year ending March 2015	10-year change
Fire-related fatalities	271	251	8.0%	243	12%	264	2.7%
Fatal fires	247	231	6.9%	233	6.0%	250	-1.2%
Non-fatal casualties	6,410	6,349	1.0%	6,949	-7.8%	7,596	-16%
Rescues	2,958	2,848	3.9%	3,015	-1.9%	3,185	-7.1%
Incidents with an evacuation	4,112	4,165	-1.3%	5,187	-21%	6,866	-40%

2.2 Fire-related fatalities and non-fatal casualties by location of fire

In the year ending March 2025, there were:

• 208 dwelling fire-related fatalities (77% of all fire-related fatalities), an increase of 14% compared to the previous year (182); Source: FIRE0502
• 37 dwelling fire-related fatalities in purpose-built flats or maisonettes (18% of all dwelling fire-related fatalities), an increase of 8.8% compared to the previous year (34); Source: FIRE0205
• 12 other building fire-related fatalities (4.4% of all fire-related fatalities), a decrease of 33% compared to the previous year (18); Source: FIRE0502
• 30 road vehicle fire-related fatalities (11% of all fire-related fatalities), a decrease of 12% compared to the previous year (34); Source: FIRE0502
• 21 other outdoor fire-related fatalities (7.7% of all fire-related fatalities), an increase of 24% compared to the previous year (17); Source: FIRE0502

Figure 2.1 Number of fire-related fatalities in dwelling fires, England; the year ending March 2011 to the year ending March 2025

Source: MHCLG, FIRE0502

In the year ending March 2025, there were 6,410 non-fatal casualties. When considered by type of fire, there were the following trends:

• 4,676 non-fatal casualties in dwelling fires (73% of all casualties), virtually unchanged on the previous year (4,680)
• 919 non-fatal casualties in other building fires (14% of all casualties), an increase of 7.1% on the previous year (858)
• 495 non-fatal casualties in road vehicle fires (7.7% of all casualties), a decrease of 5.2% on the previous year (522)
• 320 non-fatal casualties in other outdoor fires (5.0% of all casualties), an increase of 11% on the previous year (289)

Figure 2.2 Number of non-fatal casualties in dwellings, England; the year ending March 2011 to the year ending March 2025

Source: MHCLG, FIRE0502

2.3 Fire-related fatalities and non-fatal casualties by gender and age

The likelihood of dying in a fire generally increases with age, as illustrated in figure 2.3. In the year ending March 2025, 39% of all fire-related fatalities in England were in people aged 65 years and over, this was virtually unchanged compared to the previous year (40%).

When broken down by age groups, the fatality rate was:

• 7.9 fatalities per million people for those aged 65 to 79 years old, while in the year ending March 2024 there were 7.7 fatalities per million people aged 65 to 79; Source: FIRE0503
• 13.8 fatalities per million people for those aged 80 years old and over, while in the year ending March 2024 there were 11.8 fatalities per million people in this age category see figure 2.3; Source: FIRE0503
• for the age band covering those aged 10 years and under, there were 2.3 fatalities per million people, while in the year ending March 2024 there were 0.9 fatalities per million people; Source: FIRE0503
• the lowest rate was 0.7 fatalities per million people in those aged 11 to 16 years old, which compares to 0.5 in the same age category in the year ending March 2024; Source: FIRE0503

In the year ending March 2025, 39% of all fire-related non-fatal casualties in England were in people aged between 25 and 54 years old, this was a decrease of 0.9 percentage points on the previous year (40%). However, the non-fatal casualty rate was highest in those aged 80 years and over (183.6 casualties per million people).

Figure 2.3: Fatality rate (fatalities per million people) for all ages and selected age bands, England; the year ending March 2015 to the year ending March 2025

Source: FIRE0503a

Men have a greater likelihood of dying and getting injured in a fire than women. In the year ending March 2025 there were:

• 174 male fire-related fatalities (5.9 per million) compared to 95 for females (3.1 per million); Source: FIRE0503
• 3,754 male non-fatal casualties (127.2 per million) compared to 2,560 for females (83.3 per million); Source: FIRE0503

2.4 Causes of deaths and injuries

The IRS records the cause of death or nature of injury for fire-related fatalities and non-fatal casualties in fires. In the year ending March 2025, where known, the most common cause of death for fire-related fatalities was ‘Overcome by gas or smoke’ (93). ‘Overcome by gas or smoke’ accounted for 34% of fire-related fatalities and compares with 31% (77) of fire-related fatalities the previous year. The proportions for causes of death of fire-related fatalities are fairly stable across most years. In the year ending March 2025, the category of ‘unspecified’ decreased by 10% on the previous year to 45, accounting for 17% of fire-related fatalities. (Source: FIRE0504)

There were 4,171 non-fatal casualties in accidental dwelling fires in the year ending March 2025. Of the 43% of non-fatal casualties in accidental dwelling fires^{[footnote 1]} requiring hospital treatment (1,800), in the year ending March 2025:

• 847 were caused by ‘overcome by gas or smoke’ (47%), the largest category of injury
• 371 were caused by ‘burns’ (21%)
• 258 were caused by ‘other breathing difficulties’ (14%)
• All the other categories combined comprised the remaining 18% of injuries requiring hospital treatment in accidental dwelling fires. (Source: FIRE0506)

2.5 Rescues and evacuations

The number of people rescued from primary fires attended by FRSs has generally been on a downward trend since the online IRS was introduced, decreasing from 4,367 in the year ending March 2010 to 2,958 in the year ending March 2025, see figure 2.4. The longer-term decrease occurred for all rescue types, but in the past 2 years, the number of people rescued has slightly increased.

Figure 2.4: Number of people rescued and incidents involving an evacuation from primary fires, England; the year ending March 2010 to the year ending March 2025

Source: FIRE0511

The number of primary fires attended that involved an evacuation has also generally been on a downward trend, see figure 2.4, decreasing from 9,263 in the year ending March 2010 to 4,112 in the year ending March 2025. The longer-term decrease occurred for all evacuation types, but in the past 2 years, the number of incidents including an evacuation has stabilised at around 4,000.

3. Extent of damage and spread of fire

The extent of damage (due to smoke, and or heat, and or water) to dwellings and other buildings is recorded by the area in square metres (m²) broken down into 13 categories, from ‘None’ up to ‘Over 10,000’ square metres^{[footnote 2]}. Dwelling fires with more than 5,000m² of damage and other buildings fires with more than 1,000m² of damage can skew the averages, so were removed from the averages reported here^{[footnote 3]}. However, for completeness, other calculations are available in tables FIRE0204 and FIRE0305, which accompany this release

The spread of fire in dwellings and other buildings is recorded according to the extent the fire reached different parts of the building, based on 8 categories from ‘no fire damage’ to ‘fire spread to the whole building’.

3.1 Key results

In the year ending March 2025:

• the average area of damage to dwellings was 14.7m², an increase of 1.4% compared with the previous year (14.5m²)
• the average area of damage to other buildings was 22.1m², a decrease of 9.8% compared with the previous year (24.5m²)
• 29% of dwelling fires had no fire damage and 13% were larger fires, compared with 30% and 14%, respectively, the previous year ^{[footnote 4]}
• 22% of other building fires had no fire damage and 26% were larger fires, compared with 24% and 26%, respectively, the previous year.

3.2 Extent of damage

The average extent of damage to dwellings has generally decreased, since the year ending March 2004. In the latest year, the average area of damage to dwellings in England has increased by 1.4% on the previous year. (Source: FIRE0204)

The average extent of damage to other buildings (excluding those over 1,000m²) has fluctuated since the year ending March 2010 (from when the average extent of damage to other buildings started being more accurately recorded)^{[footnote 5]}, although the averages calculated in 3 of the 4 most recent years (years ending March 2022, 2024 and 2025) were the lowest over the period, at 24.2m², 24.5m² and 22.1m². (Source: FIRE0305)

3.3 Spread of fire

In the year ending March 2025, nearly one-third (29%) of dwelling fires had no fire damage, in around a third (34%) the damage was limited to the item first ignited and in roughly a quarter (24%) the damage was limited to the room of origin. The remaining 13% of dwelling fires were larger fires. (Source: FIRE0203)

In the year ending March 2025, 22% of other building fires had no fire damage, for 31% the damage was limited to the item first ignited and for 21% the damage was limited to the room of origin. The remaining 26% of other building fires were larger fires. (Source: FIRE0304)

4. Causes of dwelling fires and fire-related fatalities

The IRS collects information on the source of ignition, the cause of fire, which item or material was mainly responsible for the spread of the fire, and ignition power ^{[footnote 6]}.

4.1 Key results

In the year ending March 2025:

• of the 22,877 accidental dwelling fires^{[footnote 7]}, 29% were caused by ‘misuse of equipment or appliances’, virtually unchanged compared to 29% in the year ending March 2024; Source: FIRE0601
• there were 2,457 deliberate dwelling fires, a decrease of 5.0% on the previous year (2,586); Source: FIRE0601
• cooking appliances were the largest specified ignition category for accidental dwelling fires, accounting for 44% of these fires, but only 9.3% of the fire-related fatalities; Source: FIRE0602
• smoking materials were the source of ignition in 6.7% of accidental dwelling fires, but accounted for the largest proportion of fire-related fatalities in accidental dwelling fires at 25%

4.2 Sources of ignition in accidental dwelling fires

Since the year ending March 2011 (when the data was first recorded), the number of accidental dwelling fires has decreased by 28%. While the number of accidental dwelling fires with a source of ignition of ‘cooking appliances’ have decreased by 36% since year ending March 2011, it still accounts for 44% of all accidental dwelling fires, in comparison it accounted for 50% of accidental dwelling fires in year ending March 2011. The decrease in accidental dwelling fires has been driven by reductions in the number of fires with a known source of ignition. However, the number of accidental dwelling fires with ‘Other/ Unspecified’ source of ignition has increased by 24%, accounting for 15% of all accidental dwelling fires. (Source: FIRE0602)

Figure 4.1 shows the proportion of accidental dwelling fires, and their resulting non-fatal casualties and fire-related fatalities, attributable to different sources of ignition^{[footnote 8]}. While cooking appliances account for the largest proportion of ignition source for accidental dwelling fires and non-fatal casualties, ‘smokers materials’ accounts for the largest source of ignition for fire-related fatalities. (Source: FIRE0601, Dwelling fires dataset)

Figure 4.1: Percentage of fires, non-fatal casualties, and fire-related fatalities in accidental dwelling fires by selected sources of ignition, England; year ending March 2025

Source: MHCLG, FIRE0602

The source of ignition that accounted for the largest proportion of other building fires (excluding other and unspecified) was ‘electrical distribution’ (16%), while the largest specified ignition source for fire-related fatalities was ‘smokers’ materials’ (17%).

4.3 Main cause of, and material mainly responsible for, dwelling fires

Exactly how a fire originated, and the material that was mainly responsible for it spreading, are both important determinants in the outcomes of fires. Similarly to sources of ignition, the most common causes and materials responsible for the spread of fires are not those that lead to the greatest proportion of fire-related fatalities.

Of the 25,334 dwelling fires in the year ending March 2025:

• 29% were caused by ‘misuse of equipment or appliance’, see figure 4.2, virtually unchanged when compared to 29% in the previous year; Source: Dwelling fires dataset
• ‘textiles, upholstery and furnishings’ was the material mainly responsible for the spread of primary dwelling fires in 22% of cases, but 49% of associated fire-related fatalities; it was the item first ignited in 27% of primary dwelling fires; Source: FIRE0603

Figure 4.2: Percentage of accidental dwelling fires by cause of fire, England; year ending March 2025

Source: FIRE0601

5. Smoke alarm function

Reasons alarms did not function as expected

Did not operate: alarm battery missing; alarm battery defective; system not set up correctly; system damaged by fire; fire not close enough to detector; fault in system; system turned off; fire in area not covered by system; detector removed; alerted by other means; other; not known.

Operated but did not raise the alarm: no person in earshot; occupants did not respond; no other person responded; other; not known.

5.1 Key results

In the year ending March 2025:

• fires where a smoke alarm was not present accounted for 24% (5,977) of all dwelling fires and 31% (64) of all dwelling fire-related fatalities; Source: FIRE0702
• dwelling fires where a smoke alarm failed to operate accounted for 19%, virtually unchanged (0.1 percentage points) on the previous year; Source: FIRE0702
• fires where a smoke alarm was not present accounted for 44% (5,726) of all other building fires and 58% (7) of all other building fire-related fatalities; Source: FIRE0706
• other building fires where a smoke alarm failed to operate accounted for 10%, which was virtually unchanged (+0.2 percentage points) from the 9.8% the previous year; Source: FIRE0706

5.2 Smoke alarms in dwelling fires

Fires where a smoke alarm was present but either did not operate or did not raise the alarm accounted for 29% of all dwelling fires (19% and 10% respectively) in the year ending March 2025, similar to previous years.

In the year ending March 2025, ‘fire products did not reach detector(s)’^{[footnote 9]} and ‘fire in area not covered by system’ accounted for 63% of all failure to operate reasons for smoke alarms in dwelling fires. Table 5.1 provides a summary of the reasons smoke alarms did not operate in dwelling fires in year ending March 2025.

As for all years since the year ending March 2011, the most common category of smoke alarm failure in dwelling fires involving any victims^{[footnote 10]} was ‘other’ (including ‘alerted by other means’, ‘system damaged by fire’, ‘other’ and ‘don’t know’); Source: FIRE0704

Table 5.1: Reason smoke alarms did not operate in dwelling fires and dwelling fires resulting in casualties, England, year ending March 2025

Reason alarm failed to be raised	Fires	Casualties
Missing battery	2.1%	7.4%
Defective battery	3.4%	7.4%
Other act preventing alarm from operating	3.5%	16%
Fire products did not reach detector(s)	48%	13%
Fire in area not covered by system	15%	10%
Faulty system / incorrectly installed	2.9%	12%
Other	25%	34%

Notes:

1. Includes all non-fatal casualties and fire-related fatalities
2. other includes ‘alerted by other means’, ‘system damaged by fire’, ‘other’ and ‘don’t know’

Source: FIRE0704

5.3 Smoke alarm function and outcomes

Figure 5.1 shows the proportion of dwelling fires and associated fire-related fatalities where the alarm was ‘present, operated and raised the alarm’, ‘present but did not raise the alarm’, ‘present but did not operate’ or ‘absent’. It shows that a smoke alarm was present and raised the alarm (functioned as intended) in 48% of dwelling fires, 39% of fire-related fatalities and 53% of non-fatal casualties in the year ending March 2025. (Source: FIRE0702)

In the year ending March 2024, according to the English Housing Survey 92% of households had a working smoke alarm. Based on IRS and English Housing survey data from the past 5 years, individuals living in homes without a working smoke alarm were around 11 times more likely to die in a dwelling fire than those with a working smoke alarm^{[footnote 11]}. (Source: FIRE0701, FIRE0702)

Alarms were absent in a higher proportion of fire-related fatalities (31%) than for non-fatal casualties (20%) and in dwelling fires (24%) in the year ending March 2025. This pattern is consistent with previous years.

Figure 5.1: Smoke alarm operation outcomes for dwelling fires, fire-related fatalities and non-fatal casualties England; in the year ending March 2025

Source: MHCLG, FIRE0702

5.4 Smoke alarms in other building fires

In the year ending March 2025, in other building fires:

• where a smoke alarm was not present, accounted for 44%, compared to 43% in the previous year; Source: FIRE0706
• where a smoke alarm was present but did not raise the alarm, accounted for 5.4%, compared to 5.3% in the previous year; Source: FIRE0706
• where a smoke alarm was present but did not operate, accounted for 10%, virtually unchanged compared to 9.8% in the previous year; Source: FIRE0706

6. Summary of total response time trends to fire incidents

Total response time is the minutes and seconds elapsed from the time of call to the arrival of the first vehicle to the incident. Time of call is based on the time that the call is received by Command and Control (the Fire Control room).

The following incidents are not included in response time totals:

• road vehicle fires, where the road vehicle was abandoned
• derelict property fires
• Where an FRS learned of the fire when it was known to have been extinguished (known as ‘late calls’)
• Where the total response time for an incident was over an hour or less than 1 minute (to avoid erroneous data or exceptional incidents from skewing the averages).
• Where the sequence of events (time of call - mobilisation - vehicle mobile - arrival at scene) in an incident is not recorded in a logical sequence, either through recording error (for example a vehicle appears to have arrived before it left) or absence of data (null values).

Due to these exclusions, the number of incidents that the response times analysis is based on is lower than the reported number of incidents in FIRE0102. The number of incidents that the response time calculation is based on is provided in FIRE1001, analysis of the exclusions is provided in 11. further information.

6.1 Key results

In the year ending March 2025:

• the average total response time to primary fires in England was 9 minutes and 6 seconds; Source: FIRE1001
• there was an increase of 3 seconds in the average first appliance response time to primary fires since the previous year; Source: FIRE1001
• the average total response time to secondary fires in England saw a decrease of 1 second, compared with the previous year, to 9 minutes and 22 seconds; Source: FIRE1001

6.2 Response times to fires incidents

Figure 6.1: Average total response times (minutes) by type of fire, England; year ending March 2015 to year ending March 2025

Source: MHCLG, FIRE1001

Notes:

1. y axis is from 7 to 10 minutes

Table 6.1: Average response times, comparing the year ending March 2025 with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Type of Fire	Year ending March 2025	Year ending March 2024	1-year change	Year ending March 2020	5-year change	Year ending March 2015	10-year change
Primary fires	9m 06s	9m 03s	+3s	8m 43s	+23s	8m 37s	+29s
Dwellings	8m 06s	8m 01s	+5s	7m 46s	+20s	7m 49s	+17s
Other buildings	9m 03s	9m 03s	0s	8m 37s	+26s	8m 28s	+35s
Road vehicles	10m 12s	10m 08s	+4s	9m 40s	+32s	9m 45s	+27s
Other outdoors	11m 09s	11m 19s	-10s	11m 05s	+4s	10m 28s	+41s
Secondary fires	9m 22s	9m 23s	-1s	9m 18s	+4s	9m 03s	+19s

Source: FIRE1001

7. Response times components

The total response time (from time of call to time of first arrival) can be divided into call handling time, crew turnout time and drive time. These data are drawn from the online IRS and so are only available from year ending March 2011 onwards (see FIRE1001).

The components of response times are defined as: - Call handling time is the duration between the time of call (when Command and Control in the Fire Control room received the call) and the point at which the station is alerted - Crew turnout time is the duration between the time at which the station is alerted and the time the first vehicle departs (the time it takes for the firefighters to prepare to leave) - Drive time is the duration between the time the first vehicle leaves to the time at which the first vehicle arrives at the scene of the incident (not necessarily the same vehicle)

7.1 Key results

In year ending March 2025:

• the average call handling time for primary fires showed a decrease of 1 second compared with the previous year to 1 minute and 24 seconds; Source: FIRE1001
• the average crew turnout time for primary fires showed a decrease of 1 second compared with the previous year to 1 minute and 30 seconds
• the average drive time for primary fires showed an increase of 3 seconds compared with the previous year to 6 minutes and 11 seconds
• of the average total response time, call handling accounted for 15%, crew turnout accounted for 17% and drive time accounted for 68%

Figure 7.1: Average response time (minutes) to primary fires by response time component (stacked), England; year ending March 2015 to year ending March 2025

Source: MHCLG, FIRE1001

7.2 Call components by type of fire

It should be noted that it is difficult to isolate the impact of any individual factor on response times. Many factors at a local and national level contribute to the different call components, with some of these factors discussed below. Response times reflect the geography of the FRS, including the urban-rural nature of the FRS, new developments, and the strategic position of fire stations and appliances.

Response times to dwelling fires are the quickest for all types of fires, for all 3 of the response time components, with this trend occurring each year since data became available in year ending March 2011. This likely reflects the relative ease with which a street address can be communicated on the telephone and the urgency with which an FRS responds to fires with the greatest potential risk to life.

In contrast, primary outdoor fires, typically have the slowest times for each of the 3 call components, which could reflect the difficulty of describing an outdoor location without a street address (call handling) and the difficulty of finding it once mobile (drive time). Similarly, secondary fires have response times that are slower than primary fires, likely as most of these locations are outdoor, more rural and have a lower risk to life or property.

Table 7.1: Response times to primary fires by component, England; year ending March 2025 compared with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Component of Response Time	Year ending March 2025	Year ending March 2024	1-year change	Year ending March 2020	5-year change	Year ending March 2015	10-year change
Total Response Time	9m 06s	9m 03s	+3s	8m 43s	+23s	8m 37s	+29s
Call Handing Time	1m 24s	1m 25s	-1s	1m 22s	+2s	1m 23s	+1s
Crew Turnout Time	1m 30s	1m 31s	-1s	1m 35s	-5s	1m 45s	-15s
Drive Time	6m 11s	6m 08s	+3s	5m 46s	+25s	5m 29s	+42s

Source: FIRE1001

Table 7.2: Percentage of total response time to primary fires by component, England; year ending March 2025 compared with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Component of Response Time	Year ending March 2025	Year ending March 2024	1-year change	Year ending March 2020	5-year change	Year ending March 2015	10-year change
Call Handing Time	15%	16%	-0.2pp	16%	-0.2pp	16%	-0.6pp
Crew Turnout Time	17%	17%	-0.2pp	18%	-1.6pp	20%	-3.7pp
Drive Time	68%	68%	0.3pp	66%	1.8pp	64%	4.3pp

Source: MHCLG, FIRE1001

Notes:

1. pp stands for percentage points

8. Total response times by type of Fire and Rescue Authority (FRA)

8.1 Response times by FRA

Of the 44 fire and rescue authorities (FRAs), 13 showed a decrease in average total response time to primary fires between year ending March 2024 and year ending March 2025. Source: FIRE1001.

For primary outdoor fires, 24 FRAs showed a decrease in average total response time.

Figure 8.1: Average response times to primary fires by FRA, England; and average change in response time for year ending March 2025 compared to 2024

Notes:

1. Colour scale does not start at 0, for the average response time in minutes for year ending March 2025
2. Suffolk FRS could not submit all incidents before this date, due to technical reasons. Therefore, these statistics do not contain data for all incidents attended from September 2024 to March 2025 from Suffolk. The data will be revised in due course, as incidents are updated to the IRS
3. Suffolk’s data has been excluded from the map on the right and the change in average response time has been manually set to 0 seconds
4. the colours included in this figure may not be accessible to everyone; the numbers used to generate this figure can be found in table FIRE1001

Source: MHCLG, FIRE1001

8.2 Response times by type of FRA

FRAs can be split into 3 rural-urban classifications (predominantly rural, significantly rural and predominantly urban)^{[footnote 12]}

Average response times to primary fires are faster in predominantly urban areas and quicker still in the subset of predominantly urban FRAs which are metropolitan^{[footnote 13]}. The difference in average response times between predominantly urban and predominantly rural FRAs has been around 2 to 4 minutes every year, since records started in year ending March 2011.

As can be seen in table 8.1, for more rural FRAs, the average response time to primary fires is higher (see figure 8.2). In the year ending March 2025, average response times to primary fires increased, and most notably in rural FRAs. See figure 8.2 for further detail. For the specific call components, the trend for call handling varies between all FRAs; however, the crew turnout time and drive time both increase for more rural FRAs compared to urban FRAs, likely reflecting the crew type (generally more on-call firefighters in rural FRAs) and the distance to incidents, see table 8.2 for further detail.

Crew turnout times for predominantly rural FRAs are typically 1 minute to 1.5 minutes longer than predominantly urban FRAs in each year, likely due to the higher proportion of on-call firefighters^{[footnote 14]}, who first need to get to a station once alerted. Predominantly rural FRAs showed the greatest decrease in crew turnout time since year ending March 2014.

Figure 8.2: Average total response times (minutes) to primary fires by type of FRA, England; year ending March 2015 to year ending March 2025

Source: MHCLG, FIRE1001

Notes:

1. y axis is from 6 to 12 minutes

Table 8.1: Response times to primary fires by type of FRA, England; year ending March 2025 compared with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Location Category	Year ending March 2025	Year ending March 2024	1-year change	Year ending March 2020	5-year change	Year ending March 2015	10-year change
England	9m 06s	9m 03s	+3s	8m 43s	+23s	8m 37s	+29s
Predominantly Urban	7m 46s	7m 44s	+2s	7m 32s	+14s	7m 36s	+10s
Significantly Rural	10m 19s	10m 16s	+3s	9m 49s	+30s	9m 22s	+57s
Predominantly Rural	10m 57s	10m 50s	+7s	10m 28s	+29s	10m 25s	+32s

Source: FIRE1001

Table 8.2: Component of response times to primary fires by type of FRA, England; year ending March 2025

Location Category	Call Handling Time	Crew Turnout Time	Drive Time	Total response time
England	1m 24s	1m 30s	6m 11s	9m 06s
Predominantly Urban	1m 26s	1m 02s	5m 18s	7m 46s
Significantly Rural	1m 29s	1m 49s	7m 01s	10m 19s
Predominantly Rural	1m 11s	2m 23s	7m 23s	10m 57s

Source: FIRE1001

9. Distribution of total response times

Chapters 6 to 8 present (mean) average response times; however, many FRSs measure their performance based on the proportion of incidents attended within various target times. Fire statistics table FIRE1004 provides incident counts by 1-minute bands (until 20 minutes where it is grouped by 20-60 minutes and more than 60 minutes) for primary and secondary fires.

Key results

In year ending March 2025:

• the most common response time band for all fire types, except for primary other outdoors fires was 6 to 7 minutes
• 69% of all primary fires were responded to within 10 minutes, decreasing by 0.7 percentage points compared with the previous year
• 79% of dwelling fires were responded to within 10 minutes, decreasing by 0.7 percentage points compared with the previous year
• 69% of other building fires were responded to within 10 minutes, virtually unchanged compared with the previous year
• 52% of primary outdoor fires were responded to within 10 minutes, increasing by 1.4 percentage points compared with the previous year
• 68% of secondary fires were responded to within 10 minutes, virtually unchanged compared with the previous year

A greater proportion of dwelling fires were responded to within 10 minutes (79%), relative to the other fire types. This is likely due to the comparative ease of describing street addresses via telephone and the urgency with which FRSs respond to fires with increased risk to life or property. A smaller proportion of outdoor primary fires and secondary fires were responded to within 10 minutes, 52% and 68% respectively, likely due to these incidents typically being less urgent or occurring in more rural locations.

Figure 9.1: Proportion of primary fires in dwellings attended by FRSs in 1-minute total response time bands, England; year ending March 2025 compared with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Source: MHCLG, FIRE1004

Figure 9.2: Proportion of primary fires in other buildings attended by FRSs in 1-minute total response time bands, England; year ending March 2025 compared with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Source: MHCLG, FIRE1004

Figure 9.3: Proportion of primary fires in other outdoors attended by FRSs in 1-minute total response time bands, England; year ending March 2025 compared with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Source: MHCLG, FIRE1004

Figure 9.4: Proportion of secondary fires attended by FRSs in 1-minute total response time bands, England; year ending March 2025 compared with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Source: MHCLG, FIRE1004

Table 9.1: Proportion of fire incidents responded to within 10 minutes by type of fire incident, England; year ending March 2025 compared with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Type of Fire	Year ending March 2025	Year ending March 2024	1-year change	Year ending March 2020	5-year change	Year ending March 2015	10-year change
Primary fires	69%	70%	-0.7pp	73%	-3.5pp	74%	-4.8pp
Dwellings	79%	80%	-0.7pp	82%	-3.1pp	82%	-3.2pp
Other buildings	69%	69%	-0.2pp	73%	-3.7pp	75%	-5.9pp
Road vehicles	59%	60%	-1.1pp	64%	-5.0pp	63%	-4.1pp
Other outdoors	52%	51%	1.4pp	52%	0.1pp	57%	-5.2pp
Secondary fires	68%	68%	0.2pp	68%	0.0pp	71%	-3.1pp

Source: FIRE1004

Notes:

1. pp stands for percentage points

10. Response times and outcomes

There is no straightforward relationship between response times and the outcome of a fire. Many factors outside the control of FRSs will affect the outcome of fires, including the type of fire and the time elapsed before the fire was discovered. This section looks at response times in relation to victims (fatalities and non-fatal casualties) and rescues.

Key results

In year ending March 2025:

• the average total response time to dwelling fires involving victims and/or rescues in England was 7 minutes and 58 seconds, an increase of 3 seconds compared with year ending March 2024 (Source: FIRE1002)
• the average total response time to dwelling fires without victims and/or rescues in England was 8 minutes and 7 seconds, an increase of 5 seconds compared with year ending March 2024 (Source: FIRE1002)

Dwelling fires with victims and/or rescues have had consistently faster average response times than dwelling fires with no victims and/or rescues. These comprise a relatively small number of incidents (9.1% of all dwelling fires since year ending March 2010 involved victims and/or rescues), so are potentially more susceptible to fluctuations in average response times. The pattern is consistent across all years in the series (between 9% and 10% in each year). This suggests that while dwelling fires are responded to the most quickly of all primary fire types , see figure 6.1), response times are faster for incidents that appear to involve a risk to life, if it has been possible to collect this information from the caller.

Dwelling fires with victims consistently have faster response time call components than those without victims. In the year ending March 2025, for dwelling fires with victims:

• call handling time was the same as for those without victims
• the crew turnout time was 5 seconds quicker than for those without victims
• the drive time was 3 seconds quicker than for those without victims

11. Further information

This release contains statistics about incidents and response times to fire incidents attended by fire and rescue services (FRSs) in England. The statistics are sourced from the MHCLG’s online Incident Recording System (IRS). This system allows FRSs to complete an incident form for every incident attended, be it a fire, a false alarm or a non-fire incident (also known as a Special Service incident). The online IRS was introduced in April 2009. Previously, paper forms were submitted by FRSs and an element of sampling was involved in the data compilation process.

Fire and Rescue Incident Statistics and other MHCLG statistical releases are available via the Statistics at MHCLG pages on the GOV.UK website.

Data tables linked to this release and all other fire statistics releases can be found on the MHCLG’s Fire statistics data tables page.

Guidance for using these statistics and other fire statistics outputs, including a Quality Report, is available on the fire statistics guidance page.

The information published in this release is kept under review, taking into account the needs of users and burdens on suppliers and producers, in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

All fire-related Ministerial responsibilities moved from the Home Office to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) on 1 April 2025. This change followed a key recommendation from the Phase 2 report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, to bring all fire safety functions under one department. Therefore, as part of this move, all statistical publications and analysis on fire functions were also subject to the Machinery of Government (MoG) change.

If you have any comments, suggestions, or enquiries, please contact the team via email using firestatistics@communities.gov.uk or via the user feedback form on the fire statistics collection page.

Revisions

The IRS is a continually updated database, with FRSs adding incidents daily. The figures in this release refer to records of incidents that occurred up to and including 31 March 2025. This includes incident records that were submitted to the IRS by 1 May 2025, when a snapshot of the database was taken for the purpose of analysis. As a snapshot of the database was taken on 1 May 2025, the statistics published may not match those held locally by FRSs and revisions may occur in the future.

Suffolk FRS could not submit all incidents before this date, due to technical reasons. Therefore, these statistics do not contain data for all incidents attended from September 2024 to March 2025 from Suffolk. The data will be revised in due course, as incidents are updated to the IRS.

This analysis is now based on a five-year average rather than a single year. This change has been made to improve stability and reduce the impact of year-to-year fluctuations due to the relatively low number of fatal dwelling fires. The five-year average provides a more reliable indication of the relative risk associated with the presence or absence of a working smoke alarm.

Incidents included in response times analysis

Where the response times sections of this report (6 to 10) reference incident numbers, it refers to fire incidents included in FIRE1001, not total incidents from FIRE0102. FIRE1001 has incidents excluded that took more than an hour or less than 1 minute or had the date-time stamps incorrectly recorded. For more information on the method used to calculate response times and the underlying assumptions, please see the guidance available here: fire statistics definitions. FIRE1001 does not include chimney fires, so for the remaining fires included in FIRE1001 accounted for 92% of all fire incidents in year ending March 2025. For the specific fire types included in FIRE1001, the proportion of incidents included in the response time calculation was as follows:

• 97% of dwelling fires
• 97% of other buildings fires
• 79% of road vehicle fires
• 98% of outdoor primary fires
• 92% of secondary fires

Other related publications

MHCLG publish 4 other statistical releases covering fire and rescue services.

These include:

• Fire and rescue incident statistics, England: provides statistics on trends in fires, casualties, false alarms, non-fire incidents and response times to fire incidents attended by fire and rescue services in England, updated quarterly

• Detailed analysis of non-fire incidents attended by fire and rescue services, England: focuses on non-fire incidents attended by fire and rescue services across England, including analysis on overall trends, fatalities and non-fatal casualties in non-fire incidents, and further detailed analysis of different categories of non-fire incidents

• Fire and rescue workforce and pensions statistics: focuses on total workforce numbers, workforce diversity and information regarding leavers and joiners; covers both pension fund income and expenditure and firefighters’ pension schemes membership; and includes information on incidents involving attacks on firefighters

• Fire prevention and protection statistics, England: focuses on trends in smoke alarm ownership, fire prevention and protection activities by fire and rescue services

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government also publish other related statistical releases on fire.

These include:

• the English Housing Survey: fire and fire safety report, which focuses on the extent to which the existence of fire and fire safety features vary by household and dwelling type and this report focuses on whether people felt safe from fire in their homes, by household and dwelling type

Fire statistics are published by the other UK nations:

Scottish fire statistics and Welsh fire statistics are published based on the IRS. Fire statistics for Northern Ireland are published by the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service using data from a system similar to the Incident Recording System, which means that they are not directly comparable to English, Welsh and Scottish data.

Accredited official statistics status

Following the National Statistics designation review by the Office for Statistics Regulation the term “Accredited Official Statistics” was introduced to describe National Statistics in September 2023. This release was, formerly badged as “National Statistics” and should now be considered “Accredited Official Statistics”. National Statistics is the legal term set out in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 for “Accredited Official Statistics” that have been judged by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR)^{[footnote 15]}, to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics (“the Code”). This means these statistics meet the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value as set out in “the Code”. Further information about accredited official statistics can be found on the OSR’s website.

1. Casualties requiring hospital treatment covers all injury categories listed in FIRE0506 with the exception of ‘first aid given’ or ‘precautionary checks’. ↩

2. For a list of the damaged area size bands, see the fire statistics definitions document. ↩

3. Excluding these area categories removed 4 dwelling fires (approximately 0.01% of all dwelling fires) and 146 other buildings fires (approximately 1.1% of all other building fires) for the year ending March 2025. ↩

4. Larger fires are comprised of the following IRS categories: ‘limited to floor of origin’, ‘limited to 2 floors’, ‘affecting more than 2 floors’, ‘limited to roofs and spaces’ or the ‘whole building’. ↩

5. Some incidents in the IRS have been recorded as “deliberate” in one question but “accidental” in another question. We believe this is because the information has circumvented quality assurance checks. This means that the figures for deliberate fires in our published tables do not match always match. MHCLG will be working with FRSs to improve the quality of this data. ↩

6. For a more detailed definition on the different types of cause of fire, see the definitions document and IRS Guidance. ↩

7. As defined by cause of fire. Source: FIRE0601. ↩

8. This excludes 3,419 ‘Other and Unspecified’ accidental dwelling fires, 54 fire-related fatalities in accidental dwelling fires and 694 accidental dwelling fire casualties. ↩

9. Fire products did not reach detectors(s) can be where the smoke alarms present were poorly sited (for example not on the floor of origin) so the smoke did not reach the detector. ↩

10. This includes non-fatal casualties and fire-related fatalities. ↩

11. This calculation has been revised, see revisions for more information. For details of the calculation and assumptions made, see the definitions document. ↩

12. As defined by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ 2011 Rural-Urban Classification of Local Authorities and other geographies. There are 14 FRAs classified as predominantly urban, 17 FRAs classified as significantly rural and 13 FRAs classified as predominantly rural. ↩

13. Metropolitan FRAs are a subset of those in the predominantly urban category, while non-metropolitan comprises those in predominantly rural, significantly rural and the remainder of predominantly urban FRAs. There are 7 FRAs classified as metropolitan and 37 FRAs classified as non-metropolitan FRAs. ↩

14. Also known as ‘retained duty firefighters’. ↩

15. OSR are the regulatory arm of the UK Statistics Authority. ↩