Accredited official statistics

Detailed analysis of non-fire incidents: England, April 2024 to March 2025

Published 25 September 2025

Frequency of release: Annual

Forthcoming releases: Statistics release calendar

Responsible statistician: Mateus Ochoa

Public enquiries: firestatistics@communities.gov.uk

Media enquiries: newsdesk@communities.gov.uk

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 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.

This release contains statistics about non-fire incidents attended by Fire and rescue services (FRSs) in England for the year ending March 2025 (1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025). The statistics are sourced from the MHCLG’s online Incident Recording System (IRS) and include statistics on all non-fire incidents and related fatalities and non-fatal casualties, with long-term comparisons.

This release provides more detailed analysis of the already published trends in non-fire incidents for the year ending March 2025. For the latest headline findings on non-fire incidents numbers see Fire and rescue incident statistics: England, year ending March 2025, published 10 July 2025.

FRSs attend many types of incidents that are not fires or fire false alarms. These are known as non-fire incidents or special service incidents. Examples include flooding incidents, responding to road traffic collisions (RTCs), animal assistance, effecting entry/exit and assisting other agencies (see FIRE0901 for the full list of non-fire incident types).

Each year the content of this release is reviewed to ensure topics of interest are reported. This year’s release includes chapters covering:

• overall trends in non-fire incidents
• fatalities and non-fatal casualties
• collaborating incidents
• road traffic collisions (RTCs)
• medical incidents
• flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents
• non-fire false alarms

1. Key results

In the year ending March 2025:

• there were 211,222 non-fire incidents, the highest number of incidents since comparable data became available, an increase of 1.8% compared with the previous year (207,470), an increase of 23% compared with 5 years ago (172,209) and an increase of 69% compared with 10 years ago (125,340) Source: FIRE0901
• collaborating incidents^{[footnote 1]} accounted for an increasing proportion of non-fire incidents, up to 35% compared to 17% 10 years ago
• there were 73,332 collaborating incidents, an increase of 8.0% compared with the previous year (67,894), an increase of 57% compared with 5 years ago (46,676), and an increase of 247% compared with 10 years ago (21,147)

Figure KR.1: Top 5 most common non-fire incident types, England, year ending March 2011 to year ending March 2025

Notes 1. The 5 categories in this chart account for 72% of all non-fire incidents. The 28% of incidents not included are spread across 14 different incident types. The full list of incidents can be found in table FIRE0901

• there were 5,242 fatalities in non-fire incidents, an increase of 17% compared with the previous year (4,484), an increase of 100% compared with 5 years ago (2,616) and an increase of 201% compared with 10 years ago (1,740) Source: FIRE0904
• there were 26.0 fatalities per 1,000 non-fire incidents^{[footnote 2]}, which compares to 15.9 5 years ago (an increase of 64%), and 14.5 10 years ago (an increase of 79%).

Figure KR.2: Number of non-fire incidents and rate of fatalities per 1,000 incidents, England, year ending March 2011 to year ending March 2025

2. Non-fire incidents summary

For ease of presentation and analysis in this release and its related tables, some non-fire incident types are grouped together where appropriate:

• the categories ‘Medical incident - First responder’ and ‘Medical incident - Co-responder’ are grouped together in the ‘Medical incidents’ category
• the categories ‘Assisting other agencies’, ‘Effecting entry/exit’ and ‘Suicide (including attempts)’ are grouped together in the ‘Collaborating incidents’ category
• the categories ‘Flooding’, and ‘Rescue or evacuation from water’ are grouped together in the ‘Flooding and rescue or evacuation from water’ category
• many of the smaller non-fire incident types which do not fit neatly within the other main categories are grouped together in the ‘Other’ category

Where an incident requires an FRS to undertake multiple actions (a suicide attempt and a rescue from water, for example), it is recorded as the action that was the most resource intensive.

2.1 Key results

In the year ending March 2025, FRSs attended:

• the highest number of non-fire incidents since comparable data became available (211,222), an increase of 1.8% compared with the previous year (207,470), and an increase of 23% (172,209) compared with 5 years ago; Source: FIRE0901

The most common categories of non-fire incidents attended were:

• effecting entry/exit, 39,773 incidents, the highest number on record and an increase of 8.7% compared with the previous year (36,594)
• RTCs, 32,078 incidents, the highest number on record and an increase of 0.7% compared with the previous year (31,867)
• assisting other agencies, 30,380 incidents, the highest number on record and an increase of 7.8% compared with the previous year (28,186)
• flooding and rescue or evacuation from water, 18,540 incidents, a decrease of 8.3% compared with the previous year (20,210)
• no action, 15,385 incidents, the highest number on record and an increase of 7.5% compared with the previous year (14,310)

2.2 Trends in non-fire incidents

Between the year ending March 2000 and the year ending March 2009, the number of non-fire incidents fluctuated between 155,000 and 175,000 (see FIRE0901 for more detail), although these data precede the introduction of the online Incident Recording System in 2009, more detailed information has been collected since its implementation. There was then a general decline to around 125,000 in the year ending March 2015.

Following this period of decline, there were 2 substantial year-on-year increases. In the year ending March 2016, the number of non-fire incidents increased to around 153,000 and increased further in the year ending March 2017 to around 175,000. These increases coincided with the introduction of the National Joint Council (NJC) supported trials of emergency medical responding (EMR) in 2015. In these trials, FRSs formed agreements with ambulance trusts to undertake health and care related work, in particular co-responding. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) removed support for the trials in September 2017, which likely drove the subsequent reduction in the number of non-fire incidents. Additionally, in 2017 the Police and Crime Act placed a duty on emergency services to collaborate.

Between the year ending March 2017 and the year ending March 2020, the number of non-fire incidents fluctuated between 162,000 and 175,000. This was followed by a large reduction down to around 151,000 in the year ending March 2021, likely due to the impact of COVID-19 restrictions that were in place for much of that period. In the year ending March 2022, the number of non-fire incidents increased to 194,654.

The 3 subsequent years have seen increases, reaching 211,222 in the latest year, the largest number recorded since data became available in the year ending March 2000.

The number of non-fire incidents attended over the last 10 years has increased both in terms of the absolute number and as a proportion of all incidents attended. In the latest year, non-fire incidents accounted for 35% of all incidents, compared to 25% 10 years ago.

Figure 2.1: Incidents attended by FRSs in England, by incident type, year ending March 2011 to the year ending March 2025

Source: FIRE0102

Note: Non-fire incidents include non-fire false alarms.

2.3 Main categories of non-fire incidents

Detailed data on non-fire incident types were first collected when FRSs began to submit records via the online IRS in the year ending March 2010. Table FIRE0902 provides more detail on the action taken under each of the 23 specific non-fire incident types.

See table 9.1 for all main categories and table FIRE0901 for all specific non-fire incident types.

As seen in table 9.1, trends have varied across the non-fire incident main categories over the last 10 years. RTCs have steadily increased, with the exception of a steep drop in the year ending March 2021, during which there were restrictions on life due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2015, all 3 of the collaborating incident categories have seen large increases in incidents attended by FRS because of the government’s commitment to driving increased collaboration between the emergency services (see section 4 for more detail).

Medical incidents attended saw a sharp increase around the year ending March 2017, predominantly due to the introduction of the EMR trials; however, in the latest year the number of medical incidents attended has fallen to a similar level to before the commencement of the trials. Flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents have fluctuated - the fluctuation in the number of incidents attended appears to be linked to rainfall (see figure 7.1).

Figure 2.2 below shows the change in proportion of incidents by type over time. In the year ending March 2025, the trends were:

• collaborating incidents accounted for 35% of non-fire incidents, compared with 17% 10 years ago
• RTCs accounted for 15% of non-fire incidents, compared with 23% 10 years ago
• flooding and rescue or evacuation from water accounted for 8.8% compared with 11% 10 years ago
• medical incidents accounted for 6.4% compared with 13% 10 years ago
• other incidents accounted for 30% compared with 33% 10 years ago

Figure 2.2: Proportion of non-fire incidents attended, by main categories, England, year ending March 2011 to year ending March 2025

Notes

1. Other includes the following incident types: Lift release, No action (not false alarm), False alarms, Removal of objects from people, Animal assistance incidents, Other rescue / release of persons, Making Safe (not RTC), Hazardous Materials incident, Advice only, Spills and leaks (not RTC), Advice Only, Other Transport incident, Evacuation (no fire), Stand by, Water provision.

2.4 Other categories of non-fire incidents

Notable non-fire incident types that are grouped into ‘Other’ include: no action (not false alarm), hazardous materials incident and non-fire false alarm.

In the latest year, there were:

• 15,385 no action incidents, the highest number on record,
• an increase of 7.5% compared with the previous year (14,310)
• an increase of 68% compared with 5 years ago (9,177)
• an increase of 185% compared with 10 years ago (5,403).

The number of these incidents has increased, likely because of the increase in collaborating incidents, which can result in FRSs being initially called to assist, but upon attendance circumstances may have changed and the FRS’s assistance may no longer be required.

In the year ending March 2025, FRSs attended 4,310 ‘hazardous materials’ incidents, an increase of 3.9% and the highest number on record, compared with 4,150 in the previous year, an increase of 46% on the year ending March 2020 (2,961) and an increase of 134% on the year ending March 2015 (1,844).

When looking at the specific sub-categories of hazardous materials incidents from the IRS, in the year ending March 2025:

• ‘class 2: gases - no containment required’ accounted for the highest proportion of hazardous material incidents (63%) Source: FIRE0902
• ‘unknown - no containment required’ (12%) was the second highest proportion of incidents
• ‘class 3: flammable liquids - no containment required’ (4.9%) was the third highest proportion

3. Fatalities and non-fatal casualties in non-fire incidents

The numbers of fatalities and non-fatal casualties in non-fire incidents is related to the number of non-fire incidents attended (for example, in general the more non-fire incidents FRSs attend, it is likely that the number of fatalities and non-fatal casualties will increase). Therefore, the rates of fatalities and non-fatal casualties per 1,000 incidents are also presented to understand the changing profile of fatalities and non-fatal casualties. Another key factor is the type of incidents FRSs attend, as different incident types have varying rates of fatalities and casualties (see figure 3.1a and figure 3.1b for more detail), and the proportional mix has historically changed; and may continue to change over time.

The rates of fatalities and non-fatal casualties per 1,000 incidents exclude non-fire false alarms.

Key results

In year ending March 2025, there were:

• 5,242 fatalities in non-fire incidents, an increase of 17% compared with the previous year (4,484), an increase of 100% compared with 5 years ago (2,616) and an increase of 201% compared with 10 years ago (1,740)
• 26.0 fatalities per 1,000 non-fire incidents attended, compared with 22.7 in the previous year, 15.9 in year ending March 2019 and 14.5 10 years ago
• 44,637 non-fatal casualties in non-fire incidents, an increase of 1.3% compared with the previous year (44,047), an increase of 17% compared with 5 years ago (38,077) and an increase of 41% compared with 10 years ago (31,653)
• 221.8 non-fatal casualties per 1,000 non-fire incidents attended, virtually unchanged on the previous year (222.8), compared to 231.1 on the year ending March 2020 and 263.6 on the year ending March 2015.

3.1 Fatalities in non-fire incidents

Detailed comparable data on fatalities in non-fire incidents attended by FRSs first became available for the year ending March 2011 and remained stable at around 1,600 fatalities in each year up to and including the year ending March 2014. There was then a period of sharp increases (coinciding with the introduction of EMR trials), peaking in the year ending March 2017 at around 5,100. The termination of EMR trials led to a sharp decrease in the number of fatalities attended by FRSs to around 2,500 fatalities in the year ending March 2019. Since the year ending March 2020, the number of fatalities has increased year-on-year, reaching 5,242 in the latest year.

The main drivers of the overall increase in total fatalities in the year ending March 2025 compared with the previous year, was an increase in the number of fatalities in effecting entry/exit incidents (an increase of 478 compared with the previous year, up 44%) and assist other agencies (an increase of 257 compared with the previous year, up 22%).

Table 3.1: Number of fatalities and rate of fatalities in non-fire incidents and percentage change, England, comparing the year ending March 2025 with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Non-fire incident type	Fatalities - year ending March 2025	Fatalities - year ending March 2024	Rate of fatalities - year ending March 2025	Rate of fatalities - year ending March 2024
Total	5,242	4,484	26	23
Assist other agencies	1,442	1,185	47	42
Effecting entry/exit	1,574	1,096	40	30
Road Traffic Collision	586	677	18	21
Medical incidents	647	551	48	36
Suicide (including attempts)	409	401	129	129
Rescue or evacuation from water	174	189	89	78
Other	410	385	5	5

Source: FIRE0904a and FIRE0904b

Notes:

1. Rates in this table are calculated excluding non-fire false alarms, as these don’t have fatalities

A better metric to understand the profile of fatalities against the number of incidents is the rate of fatalities per 1,000 incidents (see table 9.2).

The non-fire incident type category with the highest rate of fatalities in the year ending March 2025 was suicide (including attempts) with a rate of 128.7 per 1,000 incidents, compared with 128.8 in the previous year and 124.4 5 years ago^{[footnote 3]}. The nature of this incident type means it is likely to entail a high fatality rate. Excluding ‘suicide (including attempts)’, the incident type with the highest fatality rate was rescue or evacuation from water, 89.4 fatalities per 1,000 incidents.

There was a spike in the rate (67.8 per 1,000 incidents) and volume of fatalities (3,104) in medical incidents in the year ending March 2017. This coincided with the period of the EMR trials. This likely entailed FRSs attending a greater number of emergency medical incidents. In the latest year, there were 47.6 per 1,000 incidents.

See figures 3.1a and 3.1b, table 9.2 and FIRE0904 for further detail.

Figure 3.1a: Rate of fatalities for each non-fire incident type (main categories) per 1,000 incidents, England, year ending March 2011 to year ending March 2025

Figure 3.1b: Rate of fatalities for ‘Suicide (including attempts)’ and ‘rescue or evacuation from water’ per 1,000 incidents, England, year ending March 2011 to year ending March 2025

Source: FIRE0904b

Notes:

1. The two charts above have different y-axis scales

3.2 Non-fatal casualties in non-fire incidents

Non-fatal casualties are split into 4 sub-categories:

Hospital severe - at least an overnight stay in hospital as an in-patient

Hospital slight - attending hospital as an outpatient (not a precautionary check)

First Aid given - first aid given at scene (by anyone), including after a precautionary check

Precautionary check - a precautionary check (to attend hospital or to see a doctor) was recommended (by anyone)

The number of non-fatal casualties in non-fire incidents remained relatively stable until the year ending March 2015 - a similar trajectory to fatalities. There were then 2 year-on-year increases in the years ending March 2016 and 2017, which coincided with the EMR trials. Between the years ending March 2017 and 2021, the number of non-fatal casualties fell each year. This was likely due to the reduction in the number of medical incidents attended by FRSs during this time and the COVID-19 restrictions in place for much of the year ending March 2021.

In terms of injury severity, of the 44,637 non-fatal casualties in non-fire incidents, these were recorded as:

• 10,756 as ‘hospital severe’, an increase of 1.3% on the previous year
• 17,073 as ‘hospital slight’, an increase of 2.6% on the previous year
• 4,772 as requiring first aid, a decrease of 3.6% on the previous year
• 7,364 as requiring precautionary checks, an increase of 3.8% on the previous year
• 4,672 as unknown, a decrease of 1.6% on the previous year

Figure 3.2: Number of non-fatal casualties in non-fire incidents, by injury severity, England, year ending March 2011 to year ending March 2025

Source: FIRE0904d

Note: Some FRSs did not record injury severity for non-fire incidents, and these were recorded as “Unknown”.

4. Collaborating incidents

Collaborating incidents are incidents that involve collaboration with other emergency services, not including medical incidents.

The following non-fire incident types are classed as incidents that could involve collaborating:

• effecting entry/exit
• assist other agencies
• suicide (including attempts)

Key results

In the year ending March 2025, FRSs attended:

• 39,773 ‘effecting entry/exit’ incidents, an increase of 8.7% compared with the previous year (36,594), an increase of 51% compared with 5 years ago (26,360) and an increase of 156% compared with 10 years ago (15,526)
• 30,380 ‘assist other agency’ incidents, an increase of 7.8% compared with the previous year (28,186), an increase of 66% compared with 5 years ago (18,275) and an increase of 572% compared with 10 years ago (4,520)
• 3,179 ‘suicide (including attempts)’ incidents, an increase of 2.1% compared with the previous year (3,114), an increase of 56% compared with 5 years ago (2,041) and an increase of 189% compared with 10 years ago (1,101)

4.1 Trends in collaborating incidents

Between the years ending March 2010 and 2015, the 3 collaborating incident types showed little change. However, since then there has been an increase in each incident type. The exception to these increases was a decrease in ‘effecting entry/exit’ in year ending March 2021, likely due to COVID-19 restrictions (see figure 4.1). The increases have been a result of the government’s commitment to driving increased collaboration between the emergency services, which led to the Policing and Crime Act 2017 introducing a statutory duty to collaborate, imposed on all 3 emergency services (see Further information section for more detail). The increasing trend also coincided with the EMR trials, which ran from 2015 to 2017 (see chapter 6).

Between the years ending March 2015^{[footnote 4]} and March 2025:

• there were 39,773 effecting entry and exit incidents, an increase of 156% compared to the year ending March 2015 (15,526)
• there were 30,380 assist other agency incidents, an increase of 572% compared to the year ending March 2015 (4,520)
• there were 3,179 suicide (including attempts) incidents, an increase of 189% compared to the year ending March 2015 (1,101)

In terms of fatalities, since the year ending March 2015, there was:

• an increase of 1458% from 101 to 1,574 in effecting entry and exit incidents
• an increase of 577% from 213 to 1,442 in assisting other agency incidents
• an increase of 94% from 211 to 409 in suicide (including attempt) incidents

The impact on the rates of fatalities (per 1,000) incidents, when compared to the year ending March 2015:

• effecting entry and exit incidents increased by 509% from 6.5 to 39.6
• assisting other agency incidents were increased by 0.8% from 47.1 to 47.5
• suicide (including attempts) incidents decreased by 33% from 191.6 to 128.7

Effecting entry/exit incidents were the most frequently attended incident type by FRSs (see FIRE0902). In the latest year, the type of action involved at effecting entry/exit incidents was:

• ‘for able bodied person not in distress’ in 33% of cases (13,259), compared to 37% in year ending March 2015 (5,733)
• ‘for a medical case’ in 28% of cases (11,231), compared to 11% (1,753) in year ending March 2015
• ‘for child’ in 11% of cases (4,186), compared to 27% in year ending March 2015 (4,190)
• ‘for person in distress’ in 10% of cases (4,013), compared to 14% in year ending March 2015 (2,103)
• ‘no persons involved’ in 10% of cases (4,099), compared to 5.1% (792) in year ending March 2015
• ‘other’ in 7.5% of cases (2,985), compared to 6.2% in year ending March 2015 (955)

Figure 4.1: Number of collaborating incidents, England, year ending March 2010 to year ending March 2025

Source: FIRE0901

4.2 Collaborating incidents per 100,000 people

The number of collaborating incidents attended per 100,000 people for each of the 3 collaborating incident types follow a similar pattern of being relatively stable between the year ending March 2010 and the year ending March 2015. Since then, there was a trend of increases, except for a slight reduction in the rate of ‘effecting entry/exit’ in the year ending March 2021. See FIRE0903 for further detail.

In the year ending March 2025:

• FRSs attended 68.9 ‘effecting entry/exit’ incidents per 100,000 people in England, compared with a rate of 63.4 the previous year and a rate of 28.6 in the year ending March 2015
• the FRS which attended the most ‘effecting entry/exit’ incidents per 100,000 people in the year ending March 2025 was Greater London with a rate of 152.3, while Suffolk attended the least with a rate of 13.3
• FRSs attended 52.7 ‘assist other agencies’ incidents per 100,000 people in England, compared with a rate of 48.9 the previous year and a rate of 8.3 in the year ending March 2015
• the FRS which attended the most ‘assist other agencies’ incidents per 100,000 people in year ending March 2025 was Gloucestershire with a rate of 116.0, while Staffordshire attended the least with a rate of 7.2
• FRSs attended 5.5 ‘suicide (including attempts)’ incidents per 100,000 people in England, similar to the previous year (5.4) and higher than the rate of 2.0 in the year ending March 2015
• the FRSs that attended the most ‘suicides (including attempts)’ incidents per 100,000 people in year ending March 2025 was Cleveland with a rate of 20.0, while the lowest rate recorded was Warwickshire and Hertfordshire with 1.3 each (excluding Isles of Scilly as they had none).

Figure 4.2 Rate of collaborating incidents per 100,000 people by FRSs for year ending March 2015 and 2025

5. Road traffic collisions (RTCs)

RTCs (RTCs) - incidents that require the attendance of the FRS for collisions involving 1 or multiple vehicles (including large and small vehicles, motorbikes), where the incident did not involve a fire. These include incidents where FRSs attend the incident for safety reasons, where people are extricated or released from their vehicle and other reasons. RTCs that involve a fire are recorded as road vehicle fires and are therefore not included in this release, see table FIRE0302 for the latest data on these incidents. RTC incidents reported in this publication only include those attended by FRSs and do not reflect all RTC incidents that occur in England. See the Department for Transport (DfT) publication on Reported road collisions, vehicles and casualties tables for Great Britain for all RTCs.

Key results

In the year ending March 2025:

• FRSs attended 32,078 RTCs in England (the highest number on record), an increase of 0.7% compared with the previous year (31,867), an increase of 3.1% compared with 5 years ago (31,108), and an increase of 10% compared with 10 years ago (29,090)

• FRS attendance at RTCs peaked during the evening rush hour from 17:00 to 18:00, while the number of RTC fatalities peaked between 22:00 to 23:00

5.1 RTC incidents overview

Between the years ending March 2010 (the first year data was collected) and 2013, the number of RTCs attended decreased from around 33,600 to around 27,900. Since then, the number fluctuated between around 28,000, and 32,000, except for the year ending March 2021 in which the number decreased to around 22,500. This was likely due to COVID-19 restrictions on daily life during this period, which led to less traffic on the roads. In the latest year, FRSs attended 32,078 RTCs, an increase of 0.7% compared with the previous year.

In the year ending March 2025, the rate of fatalities at RTCs was 18.3 per 1,000 incidents, the lowest rate since records began.

The 3 most common types of action carried out at RTCs in the year ending March 2025 were:

• making the scene safe (11,431), accounting for 36% of all RTCs
• making the vehicle safe (10,268), accounting for 32% of all RTCs
• extrication of person(s) (3,400), accounting for 11% of all RTCs

The proportion of different action types in the year ending March 2025 was broadly consistent with previous years.

Figure 5.1: RTCs by detailed type of action, England, year ending March 2013 to year ending March 2025

Source: FIRE0902

Notes:

1. Comparable data on detailed type of action at RTCs is available from year ending March 2013 onwards. Prior to this some RTC detailed action types were not recorded.

5.2 RTCs and time of day

In the year ending March 2025, FRS attendance at RTCs was most common between 17:00 to 18:00. From the hour 04:00 to 05:00 the proportion of RTCs in each hour band generally increased, peaking in the hour 17:00 to 18:00, when 7.0% of RTCs occurred. The proportion of RTCs reduced in each hour time band following the 17:00 to 18:00 peak. When looking at the ‘morning’ hours (06:00 to 12:00), incidents peaked between the hours of 08:00 to 09:00 and 11:00 to 12:00. These peaks coincide with the morning and evening rush hours, when there are typically more vehicles on the road.

Fatalities in RTCs show more fluctuation throughout the day, peaking from 22:00 to 23:00. Similar to RTC incident numbers, the fatalities occurred less frequently in the early hours of the morning, when there are typically fewer vehicles on the road. However, the proportion of RTCs that resulted in a fatality was highest during certain hours after midnight. The highest proportion of RTCs resulting in a fatality was seen between 22:00 to 23:00 (6.7%), followed by the hour between 16:00 to 17:00 (6.1%), and the hour between 11:00 to 12:00 (5.8%)

The proportion of RTC incidents attended by time of day was broadly similar in the year ending March 2025 compared with pre-pandemic figures (year ending March 2020).

Figure 5.2: Percentage of RTCs and fatalities in across all RTCs by hour of the day, England; year ending March 2025

Source: FIRE0906

5.3 Extrication of people from RTCs

Extrication is the removal or setting free of a person in difficulty, where equipment or expertise are necessary to remove someone from a situation (trapped in a vehicle RTC, for example). It includes extrication of fatal victims from an RTC incident.

Of the 32,078 RTCs attended by FRSs in the year ending March 2025, 11% (3,400) involved the extrication of at least 1 person, similar to the previous year (12%), but less than 15% 5 years ago (4,554) and 22% 10 years ago (3,400). See table FIRE0902 for more information.

The number of extrications from RTCs has been on a general downward trend since the year ending March 2010. There was a notable decrease in year ending March 2021, again likely due to the impact of COVID-19 restrictions and the reduced number of RTCs.

In the year ending March 2025, the most common method of extrication was ‘other space creation’, which accounted for 62% of all extrication incidents (2,213 incidents), followed by ‘roof removal’ which accounted for 18% (655 incidents). These have been the most common methods of extrication since data became available in year ending March 2010. See table FIRE0907 for more information.

6. Medical incidents

Medical co-responding incidents are incidents defined in the Incident Recording System (IRS) as, ‘the mobilisation of trained fire crews to provide emergency medical assistance to members of the public’.

Medical co-responding is where a formal agreement is in place with ambulance trusts. This differs to medical first responder incidents where no such agreement is in place. Co-responding involves both fire and ambulance services deploying to time critical incidents such as cardiac arrests.

The total number of medical incidents attended by FRSs has been collected since the year ending March 2000. However, it was only when the online IRS was introduced in the year ending March 2010 that information on the type of incident was collected.

Between 2015 and 2017, the NJC supported trials of EMR, where many FRSs formed agreements with ambulance trusts to undertake health and care related work, in particular co-responding. On 18 September 2017, the FBU removed support for EMR trials.

Medical first responder and medical co-responder incidents have been combined and stated as medical incidents in this publication for ease of reporting.

Key results

In the year ending March 2025, FRSs attended:

• 13,606 medical incidents, a decrease of 11% compared with the previous year (15,207), a decrease of 26% compared with 5 years ago (18,349), and a decrease of 14% compared with 10 years ago (15,813)

• the rate of fatalities per 1,000 incidents in medical incidents was 47.6, compared to 36.2 in the previous year, 15.9 in year ending March 2020, and 15.6 10 years ago

6.1 Trends in medical incidents

Between the years ending March 2010 and 2011, there was no distinction made between first responder and co-responder medical incidents. From the year ending March 2012, these were recorded separately. As services were transitioning to recording these incidents separately, it is recommended that comparisons between years are only undertaken from the year ending March 2013 onwards. Figure 5.1 illustrates the transition in reporting, and the trend in medical incidents over time.

The large increase in non-fire incidents attended by FRSs in the years ending March 2016 and 2017 can be attributed to a large rise in the number of medical incidents attended. Medical incidents accounted for 26% ^{[footnote 5]} of non-fire incidents in the year ending March 2017. Since then, this proportion has fallen to 6.4% in the year ending March 2025 (13,606). See table FIRE0901 for more information.

Figure 6.1: Number of medical incidents, England, year ending March 2011 to year ending March 2025

Source: FIRE0901

When looking at the specific sub-categories of medical incidents from the IRS, in the year ending March 2025, ‘lift person’ accounted for the highest proportion of incidents (25%, 3,348 incidents), followed by ‘other’ (14%, 1,870 incidents). See FIRE0902 for further detail.

6.2 Fatalities in medical incidents

Details of fatalities and non-fatal casualties in medical incidents are completed if the FRS had an active involvement, for example ‘touched’ the fatality or non-fatal casualty.

There were 189 fatalities in medical incidents in the year ending March 2011. This increased by over 16 times to 3,104 in the year ending March 2017, but fell to 1,555 in the year ending March 2018. The rise and fall of this figure around this time was likely due to the EMR trials beginning in 2015 and ending 2017. Since then, the number of fatalities has fluctuated. In the latest year, there were 647 fatalities. See FIRE0904a for further detail.

Similarly, the fatality rate peaked in year ending March 2017 (67.8 per 1,000 incidents), in line with implementation of the EMR trials, before decreasing to levels seen before the trials. Since year ending March 2020 (15.9 fatalities per 1,000 incidents), the rate has increased year on year to 47.6 fatalities per 1,000 incidents in the latest year (an increase of 31% on the previous year).

In the year ending March 2025, ‘unable to resuscitate, confirmed dead at scene’ accounted for 63% of all fatalities at medical incidents and ‘thought to be already dead’ accounted for 30%. These have been the 2 most common circumstances of fatalities since comparable data became available in year ending March 2013 (see FIRE0904c for further detail).

6.3 Medical incidents per 100,000 people

The number of medical incidents attended by FRSs per 100,000 people was on a slow upward trend from when the data were first collected in the year ending March 2010 until the year ending March 2015. During the 2 years of EMR trials, the rate increased to a peak of 82.8, before declining.

However, from the year ending March 2018 to 2021, medical incidents per 100,000 people steadily decreased. This pattern can be attributed to the medical co-responding pilot trials beginning in 2015 and ending in 2017.

In the year ending March 2025, FRSs attended 23.6 medical incidents per 100,000 people in England. This compared with a rate of 26.4 in the previous year and a rate of 29.1 10 years ago (see FIRE0903 for further detail).

When the rate of medical incidents per 100,000 people is analysed by FRS^{[footnote 6]}, Humberside had the highest rate at (237.9), followed by Bedfordshire (151.9). The FRS which attended the fewest medical incidents per 100,000 people was Essex, with a rate of 2.6 (see FIRE0903 for further detail).

7. Flooding and rescue or evacuation from water

The IRS records FRS attendance at ‘Flooding’ and ‘Rescue or evacuation from water’ incidents. These data were first collected for the year ending March 2010 when the online IRS was introduced.

Flooding incidents include those caused by:

• burst water mains
• flooding in open ground
• weather-related incidents, such as flash flooding

The types of incidents recorded in the IRS range from those where no action was required, to pumping out or making safe and evacuation. In instances where a flood affects more than 1 property, FRSs record an incident for each property they visit. In extreme circumstances, however, it is difficult for FRSs to give an accurate recording of each incident attended as they may have to move rapidly from 1 property to another when assisting with a flood.

Rescues or evacuations cover a wide range of circumstances from those where people are rescued from a swimming pool, river, lake, or the sea, to being in a vehicle surrounded by water.

Key results

In the year ending March 2025, there were:

• 18,540 flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents, a decrease of 8.3% compared with the previous year (20,210), an increase of 5.7% compared with 5 years ago, and an increase of 40% compared with 10 years ago
• 16,594 flooding incidents, a decrease of 6.8% compared with the previous year (17,798), an increase of 6.8% compared with 5 years ago, and an increase of 34% compared with 10 years ago
• 1,946 rescue or evacuation from water incidents, a decrease of 19% compared with the previous year (2,412), a decrease of 2.7% compared with 5 years ago, and an increase of 136% compared with 10 years ago

7.1 Flooding and rescue or evacuation from water overview

The number of flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents has fluctuated since data became available in year ending March 2010, with a notable low point in year ending March 2012 (15,701 incidents). As shown in figure 7.1, the fluctuation in the number of incidents generally aligns with the annual changes in rainfall. In the year ending March 2025, there were 18,540 flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents, of which 16,594 (90%) were flooding incidents and 1,946 (10%) incidents were rescue or evacuation from water incidents.

Figure 7.1: Rainfall (mm) and the number of flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents, England, year ending March 2011 to year ending March 2025

Source: FIRE0901 and the Met Office

7.2 Flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents per 100,000 people

Similarly to the number of incidents, the rate of flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents attended per 100,000 people in England has fluctuated since the data were first collected in year ending March 2010.

In year ending March 2025, FRSs attended 32.1 flooding incidents per 100,000 people in England. At an FRS level, Greater London attended the most flooding incidents per 100,000 people with a rate of 91.7. Derbyshire attended the fewest with a rate of 5.9 (excluding Isles of Scilly as the number of incidents were very low).

Figure 7.2 Flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents per 100,000 people by FRSs, year ending March 2025

8. Non-fire false alarms

Non-fire false alarms are categorised as either ‘Malicious’ or ‘Good intent’.

Malicious non-fire false alarms - Calls made with the intention of getting the FRS to attend a non-existent incident, including deliberate and suspected malicious intentions.

Good Intent non-fire false alarms - Calls made in good faith in the belief that the FRS really would attend a special service incident.

Key results

In the year ending March 2025, fire and rescue services attended:

• 9,991 non-fire false alarms, an increase of 1.9% compared with the previous year 9,804) and an increase of 34% compared with 5 years ago (7,467)

8.1 Non-fire false alarms overview

The IRS records data on both fire and non-fire false alarms (from year ending 2009 to 2010). The number of fire false alarms was greater than the number of non-fire false alarms. Fire-false alarms are published in table FIRE0104 and discussed in Fire and Rescue Incident Statistics releases.

The number of non-fire false alarms fell year-on-year from a peak of around 13,200 in year ending March 2010 to a low of around 5,200 in year ending March 2015. Since year ending March 2015 the number has steadily increased, except for a reduction in year ending March 2021 - likely due to COVID-19 restrictions. In the year ending March 2025, there were 9,991 non-fire false alarms.

8.2 Non-fire false alarms per 100,000 people

The number of non-fire false alarms per 100,000 people was on a downward trend from when the data were first collected in the IRS in year ending March 2010 until year ending March 2015. Since then, the number of non-fire false alarms per 100,000 people has gradually increased but remains much lower than in year ending March 2010. In year ending March 2025, there were 17.3 non-fire false alarms per 100,000 people in England. This compared with 17.0 in the previous year and 13.3 5 years ago.

At an FRS level^{[footnote 7]}, South Yorkshire had the most non-fire false alarms per 100,000 people with 47.1, followed by Greater London with 30.4 and Hertfordshire with 29.5. The FRS with the least non-fire false alarms per 100,000 people was Surrey with 2.9.

9. Summary of changes over time

Table 9.1: Number of non-fire incidents, comparing the year ending March 2025 with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Non-fire 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
Total	211,222	207,470	1.8%	172,209	23%	125,340	69%
Collaborating incidents	73,332	67,894	8.0%	46,676	57%	21,147	247%
Of which, effecting entry/exit	39,773	36,594	8.7%	26,360	51%	15,526	156%
Of which, assist other agencies	30,380	28,186	7.8%	18,275	66%	4,520	572%
Of which, suicide (including attempts)	3,179	3,114	2.1%	2,041	56%	1,101	189%
Road Traffic Collision	32,078	31,867	0.7%	31,108	3.1%	29,090	10%
Flooding and rescue or evacuation from water	18,540	20,210	-8.3%	17,543	5.7%	13,216	40%
Of which, flooding	16,594	17,798	-6.8%	15,543	6.8%	12,391	34%
Of which, rescue or evacuation from water	1,946	2,412	-19%	2,000	-2.7%	825	136%
Medical incidents	13,606	15,207	-11%	18,349	-26%	15,813	-14%
No action (not false alarm)	15,385	14,310	7.5%	9,177	68%	5,403	185%
Lift release	12,595	12,546	0.4%	11,710	7.6%	10,231	23%
False alarms	9,991	9,804	1.9%	7,467	34%	5,246	90%
Other	35,695	35,632	0.2%	30,179	18%	25,194	42%

Source: FIRE0901

Notes:

1. False alarms - contains the ‘Malicious False Alarm’ and ‘Good Intent False Alarm’ non-fire categories.
2. There are 12 incident types included in the ‘Other’ category^{[footnote 8]}.

Table 9.2: Rate of fatalities per 1,000 non-fire incidents and percentage change, England, comparing the year ending March 2025 with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Non-fire 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
Total	26.1	22.7	15%	15.9	64%	14.5	80%
Assist other agencies	47.5	42.0	13%	34.6	37%	47.1	0.7%
Effecting entry/exit	39.6	29.9	32%	17.3	128%	6.5	508%
Road Traffic Collision	18.3	21.2	-14%	20.2	-9.4%	23.2	-21%
Medical incidents	47.6	36.2	31%	15.9	200%	15.6	204%
Suicide (including attempts)	128.7	128.8	-0.1%	124.4	3.4%	191.6	-33%
Rescue or evacuation from water	89.4	78.4	14%	54.0	66%	113.9	-22%

Source: FIRE0904b

Note: Rates for ‘other’ are not meaningful because of the wide variety of incident types included within it, therefore, are excluded from this summary table. Source: FIRE0904

If you have any comments, suggestions, or enquiries, please contact the team via email using firestatistics@communities.gov.uk.

10. Further information

This release contains statistics about non-fire incidents attended by FRSs (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. The Office for Statistics Regulation carried out a compliance check in 2021 of the fire and rescue incident statistics against the Code of Practice, this was conducted when fire policy was under Ministerial responsibility of the Home Office. The results can be found in a letter to the Head of Profession published on the OSR website.

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

10.1 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 01 May 2025, when a snapshot of the database was taken for the purpose of analysis. As a snapshot of the dataset was taken on 01 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.

10.2 Duty to collaborate

The Policing and Crime Act 2017 introduced a new statutory duty on the three emergency services to consider opportunities to collaborate and to give effect to collaboration proposals where it would be in the interests of their efficiency or effectiveness. The act received Royal Assent on 31 January 2017.

10.3 Other related publications

Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government publish 4 other statistical releases covering FRSs.

These include:

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

• Detailed analysis of fires attended and response times attended by FRSs in England: focuses on fires and response times to fires attended by FRSs across England, fire-related fatalities and non-fatal casualties in those fires; including analyses of the causes of fires and smoke alarms ownership and operation

• 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 FRSs

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

which includes:

• the English Housing Survey fire and fire safety report: fire and fire safety report 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 9]}, 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. Collaborating incidents are incidents that involve collaboration with other emergency services, not including medical incidents. This incident type consists of effecting entry/exit, assist other agencies and suicide (including attempts) incidents. ↩

2. excludes non-fire false alarms ↩

3. Excluding ‘false alarms’ as these do not entail any fatalities by definition, ‘lift release’ as the numbers are too small to provide reliable rates and ‘other’ as this category consists of disparate incident types hence the rate is not meaningful. ↩

4. In 2015 the government committed to driving increased collaboration between the emergency services. ↩

5. For more detail about the types of medical incident attended see FIRE0902. ↩

6. Before the year ending March 2018, Hampshire FRS did not record medical co-responding incidents in the IRS. They are currently undertaking a project to upload this data for the year ending March 2018 to the year ending March 2021. ↩

7. The number of non-fire false alarms per 100,000 people can vary greatly for Isles of Scilly due to its small population and the typically small number of non-fire false alarms. This region has therefore been excluded from this analysis. ↩

8. Other includes the following incident types: Removal of objects from people, Animal assistance incidents, Other rescue / release of persons, Making Safe (not RTC), Hazardous Materials incident, Advice only, Spills and leaks (not RTC), Advice Only, Other Transport incident, Evacuation (no fire), Stand by, Water provision ↩

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