National statistics

Fire and rescue incident statistics: England, year ending June 2021

Published 11 November 2021

Applies to England

Frequency of release: Quarterly

Forthcoming releases: Home Office statistics release calendar

Home Office responsible statistician: Tom Cracknell

Press enquiries: pressoffice@homeoffice.gov.uk

Telephone: 0300 123 3535

Public enquiries: firestatistics@homeoffice.gov.uk

This release contains statistics about incidents attended by fire and rescue services (FRSs) in England for the year ending June 2021. The statistics are sourced from the Home Office’s online Incident Recording System (IRS) and include statistics on all incidents, fire-related fatalities and casualties from fires, with long term comparisons. In addition, this release includes a section covering statistics for Great Britain for the year ending March 2021.

Key results

FRSs attended 529,101 incidents in the year ending June 2021, a four per cent decrease compared with the previous year (550,420). Of these incidents, there were 149,779 fires which was a four per cent decrease compared with the previous year (156,282).

There were 249 fire-related fatalities in the year ending June 2021 compared with 235 in the previous year.

1. Incident summary

Incidents that FRSs attend are categorised into three main types - fires attended, non-fire incidents and fire false alarms.

Key results

In the year ending June 2021:

• 529,101 incidents were attended by FRSs, this was a four per cent decrease compared with the previous year (550,420), a one per cent decrease compared with five years ago (535,570) and a 17 per cent decrease compared with ten years ago (634,430) Source: FIRE0102

• of all incidents attended by FRSs, fires accounted for 28 per cent, fire false alarms 40 per cent and non-fire incidents 31 per cent, compared with fires accounting for 35 per cent, fire false alarms 42 per cent and non-fire incidents 23 per cent ten years ago Source: FIRE0102

Total incidents

The number of incidents attended by FRSs in England peaked in the year to March 2004, at over one million incidents. For around a decade, there was a general decline in all three categories of incidents attended and by the year ending March 2015 there were fewer than half a million incidents. Since then, this number rose to around 577,000 incidents in the year to March 2019 and, then fell to 529,101 in the year ending June 2021.

In contrast to the earlier decreases (caused by a reduction in fire and fire false alarm incidents), the increase in total incidents over the four years to March 2019 was driven by increases in fire and non-fire incidents. Furthermore, the increase in non-fire incidents over this time was mainly due to changes in the number of medical incidents and collaboration incidents attended, which are discussed in Section 4.

This year’s decrease compared with the year ending June 2020 was partly driven by decreases in primary fires and fire false alarms. It should also be noted that the year ending June 2021 includes two national lockdowns and various local lockdowns which applied strict limits on daily life in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The year ending June 2020 includes the first (and strictest) national lockdown.

Figure 1.1: Total incidents attended by incident type, England; year ending June 2021

Source: FIRE0102

Notes: Non-fire incidents include non-fire false alarms

2. Fires attended

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 that meet at least one of the following criteria - occurred in a (non-derelict) building, vehicle or outdoor structure or involved a fatality, casualty or rescue or were attended by five or more pumping appliances.

Secondary fires are generally small outdoor fires, not involving people or property.

Chimney fires are in (non-industrial) buildings where the flame was contained within the chimney structure.

Key results

In the year ending June 2021:

• FRSs attended 149,779 fires, a four per cent decrease compared with the previous year (156,282) and a 33 per cent decrease compared with ten years ago (223,192 in the year ending June 2011) Source: FIRE0102

• there were 61,940 primary fires, a nine per cent decrease compared with the previous year (67,710), each type of primary fire showed a decrease over that time Source: FIRE0102

• FRSs attended 728 fires in purpose-built high-rise (10+ storeys) flats or maisonettes, a seven per cent decrease compared with the previous year (783) and three per cent of the 27,019 primary dwelling fires attended Source: FIRE0205

Total fires

The long-term picture shows that 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 financial year to March 2004 to around 154,000 in the year ending March 2013 and fluctuating since.

The total number of fires decreased by four per cent from 156,282 in the year ending June 2020 to 149,779 in the year ending June 2021 (Figure 2.1). Primary fires fell by nine per cent (from 67,710 to 61,940), with all types of primary fire showing a decrease. Secondary fires also decreased slightly, by one per cent (from 85,553 to 84,525). The only fire type to show an increase was chimney fires (the least common fire type), from 3,019 to 3,314. The number of fires in the year ending June 2021 decreased by three per cent compared with five years ago (154,563) and decreased by 33 per cent compared with ten years ago (223,192).

Figure 2.1: Total fires attended by type of fire, England; year ending June 2011 to year ending June 2021

Source: FIRE0102

Primary fires

In the year ending June 2021 there were 61,940 primary fires (41% of the 149,779 fires attended). This was a nine per cent decrease compared with the previous year (67,710), a 15 per cent decrease compared with five years ago (73,000) and a 32 per cent decrease compared with ten years ago (91,039). Compared with the year ending June 2020, there were decreases of five per cent in dwelling fires, 14 per cent in other buildings fires, eight per cent in road vehicle fires and 16 per cent in other outdoor fires.

Of the 27,019 primary dwelling fires attended by FRSs, 74 per cent were in houses, bungalows, converted flats and other properties, whilst 26 per cent were in purpose-built flats or maisonettes.

When looking at fires in purpose-built flats or maisonettes in more detail, 17 per cent of primary dwelling fires were in purpose-built low-rise (1-3 storeys) flats or maisonettes; seven per cent were in purpose-built medium-rise (4-9 storeys) flats or maisonettes and three per cent were in purpose-built high-rise (10+ storeys) flats or maisonettes.

3. Fire false alarms

Fire false alarms are where an FRS attends a location believing there to be a fire incident but, on arrival, discovers that no such incident exists or existed. These are broadly categorised by motive into ‘due to apparatus’, ‘good intent’ and ‘malicious’.

Due to apparatus calls are where a fire alarm or fire-fighting equipment operate (including accidental initiation by persons) in error.

Good intent calls are made in good faith in the belief that the FRS really would be attending a fire.

Malicious false alarms are made with the intention of getting the FRS to attend a non-existent incident.

Key result

In the year ending June 2021:

• FRSs attended 213,949 fire false alarms, an eight per cent decrease compared with the previous year (231,638), a one per cent decrease compared with five years ago (217,093) and a 20 per cent decrease compared with ten years ago (266,809).

Fire false alarms by type

The number of fire false alarms attended by FRSs in England was on a general downward trajectory, from a peak of around 393,900 early in the 2000s to a low of around 214,400 in the year ending March 2016. Since then the number climbed to around 232,000 in the year ending June 2020 but decreased in the last year (see Figure 3.1). It should also be noted that the year ending June 2021 includes two national lockdowns and various local lockdowns which applied strict limits on daily life in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The year ending June 2020 includes the first (and strictest) national lockdown. The proportion of total incidents that were fire false alarms in the year ending June 2021 was 40 per cent. This proportion has been relatively stable over the past decade, varying between 40 and 44 per cent.

Figure 3.1: Total fire false alarms by type of false alarm, England; year ending June 2011 to year ending June 2021

Source: FIRE0102

In the year ending June 2021 there were:

• 143,279 fire false alarms due to apparatus: a six per cent decrease from the previous year (152,787), a two per cent decrease from five years previously (145,811) and a 21 per cent decrease from ten years previously (181,873)

• 65,457 fire false alarms due to good intent: a ten per cent decrease from the previous year (72,946), a two per cent increase from five years previously (64,354) and a 12 per cent decrease from ten years previously (74,382)

• 5,213 malicious fire false alarms: a 12 per cent decrease from the previous year (5,905), a 25 per cent decrease from five years previously (6,928) and a 51 per cent decrease from ten years previously (10,554) Source: FIRE0104

4. Non-fire incidents attended

FRSs attend many types of incident 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, animal assistance and collaboration incidents such as effecting entry or exit and assisting other agencies (a complete list can be found in fire data table FIRE0902).

Key results

In the year ending June 2021:

• FRSs attended 165,373 non-fire incidents, a two per cent increase compared with the previous year (162,500) and a one per cent increase compared with five years ago (163,914) (Source: FIRE0901)

• FRSs attended 50,270 collaborating incidents^{[footnote 1]}, this was a ten per cent increase compared with the previous year (45,673) (Source: FIRE0901)

• FRSs attended 25,430 road traffic collisions, an eight per cent decrease compared with the previous year (27,724) (Source: FIRE0901)

• FRSs attended 15,707 medical incidents^{[footnote 2]}, this was a four per cent decrease compared with the previous year (16,331) (Source: FIRE0901)

All non-fire incidents attended

There was a general decline in the number of non-fire incidents attended between the year to March 2008 and the mid 2010s (Figure 4.1). This was followed by a large increase of almost two-fifths to the year to March 2017 coinciding with the introduction of emergency medical responding (EMR) and the duty to collaborate legislation. When the EMR stopped in 2017 the total number of non-fire incidents slightly decreased before stabilising at around 160,000 in the past three years.

Figure 4.1: Total non-fire incidents attended by FRSs, England; year ending June 2011 to year ending June 2021

Source: FIRE0901

In the year ending June 2021 FRSs attended 165,373 non-fire incidents. This was a two per cent increase compared with the previous year (162,500), a one per cent increase compared with five years ago (163,914) and a 15 per cent increase compared with ten years ago (144,429). The overall two per cent increase, compared to the previous year, was mainly the result of changes in the largest categories of non-fire incidents, as shown in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1: The largest categories of non-fire incidents attended by FRSs in England; year ending June 2020 to year ending June 2021

Non-fire incident type	Year ending June 2020	Year ending June 2021	% change
Total non-fire incidents	162,500	165,373	+2%
Collaborating incidents	45,673	50,270	+10%
Road traffic collisions	27,724	25,430	-8%
Medical incidents	16,331	15,707	-4%
Flooding incidents	15,054	15,649	+4%

Source: FIRE0901, FIRE0902

The ten per cent increase in collaborating incidents continues a recent trend of increases. In the year to March 2015 there were 21,145 collaborating incidents but by the year to March 2020 this had more than doubled to 46,679.

The start of the increase coincided with the duty to collaborate legislation, whereby each emergency service “must keep under consideration whether entering into a collaboration agreement with one or more other relevant emergency services in England could be in the interests of the efficiency or effectiveness of that service and those other services.”

There was an eight per cent decrease in road traffic collisions compared with the previous year. It should be noted that the year ending June 2021 includes two national lockdowns and various local lockdowns which applied strict limits on daily life which reduced the amount of road traffic and hence road traffic collisions.

The four per cent decrease in medical incidents continues a recent trend of decreases - a 31 per cent decrease from the year ending December 2018 (22,836). The April to June 2020 figure, which is now in the comparator year, was the lowest quarterly figure since April to June 2010, and yet there was still a decrease in the year ending June 2021. The recent downward trend follows the removal of FBU support for emergency medical responding (EMR) trials. These trials began in 2015 when the National Joint Council (NJC) supported trials where FRSs formed agreements with ambulance trusts to undertake health and care related work, in particular, co-responding. There was a large increase of almost two-fifths to the year to March 2017 coinciding with the introduction. Following the withdrawal of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) support in September 2017, the number of these incidents has decreased to a level slightly higher than before the trials.

5. Fire-related fatalities and casualties

Fire-related fatalities are those that would not have otherwise occurred had there not been a fire. For the purpose of publications, a fire-related fatality includes those that were recorded as ‘don’t know’.

Non-fatal casualties are those resulting from a fire, whether the injury was caused by the fire or not.

As the Incident Recording System (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.

Key results

In the year ending June 2021:

• there were 249 fire-related fatalities (see Figure 5.1) compared with 235 in the previous year (an increase of 6%), fire-related fatalities are generally at historically low levels (Source: FIRE0502)

• there were 193 fire-related fatalities in dwelling fires, compared with 186 in the previous year (an increase of 4%)

• there were 6,387 non-fatal casualties^{[footnote 3]}, a five per cent decrease compared with 6,750 in the previous year - this includes 2,664 casualties requiring hospital treatment, a seven per cent decrease compared with the 2,852 in the previous year (Source: FIRE0502)

Fire-related fatalities

The number of fire-related fatalities in England has been on a general downward trend from the early 1980s when comparable figures first became available. There was an exceptionally high figure in year ending June 2017 (Figure 5.1) due to the Grenfell Tower fire ^{[footnote 4]}. The 221 fire-related fatalities in the year ending December 2020 was the lowest 12-month figure since quarterly data became available in the year to March 2002. It should also be noted that the numbers of fire-related fatalities are prone to year-on-year fluctuations due to relatively low numbers.

A very small proportion of fires resulted in a fire-related fatality: 238 out of the 61,940 primary fires (0.38%). This proportion is virtually unchanged compared with the previous year, when there were 227 fires with a fire-related fatality out of the 67,710 primary fires (0.34%). There were four fires from the 728 fires in purpose-built high-rise (10+ storeys) flats or maisonettes in the year ending June 2021 which resulted in a fatality, the same as in the previous year.

Figure 5.1: Total fire-related fatalities, England; year ending June 2011 to year ending June 2021

Source: FIRE0502

Note: Fire-related fatalities are those that would not have otherwise occurred had there not been a fire, those where the role of fire in the fatality was “not known” are included in “fire-related”.

Non-fatal casualties

The number of non-fatal casualties in fires in England has been on a downward trend since the mid-1990s. More detailed data became available due to the introduction of the online IRS in 2009 and since then the “hospital slight” and “first aid” categories have shown the biggest decline. The year ending June 2021 had the lowest number of non-fatal casualties (6,387) since the 1982 financial year (when comparable data were first collected). Compared with the year ending June 2020, there were decreases in the hospital slight (down 9%) and first aid (down 9%) categories, an increase in the hospital severe (up 2%) category and no change in the precautionary checks category.

Figure 5.2: Total non-fatal casualties in fires by injury severity, England; year ending June 2011 to year ending June 2021

Source: FIRE0502

Note: These figures are for all casualties in fires, whether the fire caused the casualty or not.

6. Response times to fire incidents

Headline findings on response times are now included in Fire and Rescue Incident Statistics. Table FIRE1001 is published alongside this release and shows greater detail than this commentary, for example breakdowns by time components. Full commentary and further tables will be published in January 2022 in Detailed Analysis of Fire Response Times

Key results

In the year ending June 2021:

• the average total response time to primary fires^{[footnote 5]} in England was 8 minutes and 39 seconds: a decrease of two seconds since the previous year (Source: FIRE1001)

• two types of primary fires showed a decrease in average response times (road vehicle fires and outdoor primary fires, both by six seconds), while the other two types increased (dwelling fires by three and other building fires by five seconds)

• the average total response time to secondary fires^{[footnote 6]} (which can broadly be thought of as smaller outdoor fires, not involving people or property) in England decreased by four seconds, compared with the previous year, to 9 minutes and 20 seconds

Response times 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.

The following incidents are not included in response time totals.

a. Road vehicle fires, where the road vehicle was abandoned.

b. Where the location of the fire was a derelict property.

c. Where an FRS learned of the fire when it was known to have already been extinguished (known as “late calls”).

d. Where the total response time for an incident was over an hour or less than one minute (to avoid erroneous data or exceptional incidents from skewing the averages)

e. Where the sequence of events (time of call - mobilisation - vehicle mobile - arrival at scene) in an incident are not recorded in a logical sequence, either through recording error (e.g.a vehicle appears to have arrived before it left) or absence of data (null values).

Looking at the long-term trend, response times to fires increased gradually between the year ending March 1995 (when these data were first collected) and the year ending March 2015, since then they have generally levelled off. The average total response time to primary fires in the year ending June 2021 was 8 minutes and 39 seconds, an increase of 30 seconds over the past decade but a decrease of two seconds in the past five years - the pattern varied across different types of fire (see Figure 6.1).

When looking at types of primary fire, the average response time to dwelling fires in the year ending June 2021 was 7 minutes and 43 seconds compared with 7 minutes and 40 seconds in the previous year. Within the dwelling fire category, the average response time to fires in flats was 6 minutes and 58 seconds, 8 minutes and 10 seconds for houses or bungalows and 7 minutes and 43 seconds for other dwellings. This may reflect the fact that flats are generally in urban locations which tend to be in closer proximity to a fire station than rural areas.

The other type of primary fire response time to decrease was outdoor primary fires, by five seconds to 11 minutes and 7 seconds. It should be noted that other outdoor fires are numerically the smallest of the main primary fire types and so are prone to fluctuation as can be seen in Figure 6.1.

The average response time to other building fires in the year ending June 2021 was 8 minutes and 40 seconds, an increase of five seconds compared with the previous year. Of these, the average response time to fires in other residential buildings (such as student halls of residence, nursing or care homes and hotels) was 8 minutes and 11 seconds, compared with 8 minutes and 43 seconds for non-residential buildings. This was likely due to FRSs prioritising fires with the greatest risk to life.

Road vehicle fire response times also decreased. The average response time in the year ending June 2021 was 9 minutes and 32 seconds, a reduction of six seconds compared with previous year. In the year ending June 2021 the average response time to secondary fires was 9 minutes and 20 seconds, a decrease of four seconds from last year.

Figure 6.1: Average total response times (minutes) by type of fire, England; year ending June 2010 to year ending June 2021

Source: FIRE1001

7. Summary of changes over time

Table 7.1: Number of incidents, comparing the year ending June 2021 with one, five and ten years previously

Incident type	Year ending June 2021	Year ending June 2020	change	Year ending June 2016	change	Year ending June 2011	change
All incidents	529,101	550,420	-4%	535,570	-1%	634,430	-17%
Fires	149,779	156,282	-4%	154,563	-3%	223,192	-33%
Primary fires	61,940	67,710	-9%	73,000	-15%	91,039	-32%
Dwelling fires	27,019	28,421	-5%	30,962	-13%	36,357	-26%
Accidental dwelling fires	24,334	25,436	-4%	27,996	-13%	31,556	-23%
Secondary fires	84,525	85,553	-1%	77,396	+9%	124,888	-32%
Fire false alarms	213,949	231,638	-8%	217,093	-1%	266,809	-20%
Non-fire incidents	165,373	162,500	+2%	163,914	+1%	144,429	+15%

Table 7.2: Number of fire-related fatalities and non-fatal casualties, comparing the year ending June 2021 with one, five and ten years previously

Fatalities and non-fatal casualties	Year ending June 2021	Year ending June 2020	change	Year ending June 2016	change	Year ending June 2011	change
Fire-related fatalities	249	235	+6%	289	-14%	323	-23%
Fire-related fatalities in dwellings	193	186	+4%	217	-11%	247	-22%
Non-fatal casualties	6,387	6,750	-5%	7,402	-14%	9,601	-33%
Non-fatal casualties requiring hospital treatment	2,664	2,852	-7%	3,151	-15%	4,441	-40%
Non-fatal casualties in dwellings	4,932	5,074	-3%	5,601	-12%	7,634	-35%

Table 7.3: Average response times, comparing the year ending June 2021 with one, five and ten years previously

Fire type	Year ending June 2021	Year ending June 2020	change	Year ending June 2016	change	Year ending June 2011	change
Primary fires	8m 39s	8m 41s	-2s	8m 41s	-2s	8m 9s	+30s
Dwellings	7m 43s	7m 40s	+3s	7m 48s	-5s	7m 24s	+19s
Other buildings	8m 40s	8m 35s	+5s	8m 32s	+8s	7m 52s	+48s
Road vehicles	9m 32s	9m 38s	-6s	9m 48s	-16s	9m 3s	+29s
Other outdoors	11m 7s	11m 13s	-6s	10m 49s	+18s	9m 54s	+1m 13s
Secondary fires	9m 20s	9m 24s	-4s	9m 14s	+6s	8m 37s	+43s

Source: Fire statistics data tables

8. National comparisons

England, Scotland and Wales all use the Home Office’s Incident Recording System and therefore, data are comparable. National comparisons are included in this publication once all three nations have reported financial year statistics. All three nations publish more detailed information on fire and rescue incidents, focusing on the particular user needs in their nation (see Other related publications section for more details).

Key results

In the year ending June 2021:

• there were around 636,000 incidents attended by FRSs in Great Britain, approximately 518,000 of these were in England, 86,000 in Scotland and 32,000 in Wales and these figures correspond to rates per million people of 9,167 in England, 15,657 in Scotland and 10,168 in Wales Source: FIRE0101

• there were approximately 75,000 primary fires attended by FRSs in Great Britain, approximately 62,000 of these were in England, 9,000 in Scotland and 4,000 in Wales and these figures correspond to rates per million people of 1,095 in England, 1,723 in Scotland and 1,198 in Wales Source: FIRE0103

• there were about 29,800 accidental dwelling fires attended by FRSs in Great Britain, approximately 24,300 of these were in England, 4,100 in Scotland and 1,400 in Wales and these figures correspond to rates per million people of 430 in England, 758 in Scotland and 434 in Wales Source: FIRE0201

• there were 313 fire-related fatalities in Great Britain, 239 of these were in England, 53 in Scotland and 21 in Wales and these figures correspond to rates per million people of 4 in England, 10 in Scotland and 7 in Wales Source: FIRE0501

• there were 7,774 non-fatal casualties in Great Britain, 6,349 of these were in England, 1,017 in Scotland and 408 in Wales and these figures correspond to rates per million people of 112 in England, 186 in Scotland and 129 in Wales Source: FIRE0501

9. Further information

This release contains statistics about incidents attended by fire and rescue services (FRSs) in England. The statistics are sourced from the Home Office’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 Home Office statistical releases are available via the Statistics at Home Office pages on the GOV.UK website.

Data tables linked to this release and all other fire statistics releases can be found on the Home Office’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 recently carried out a compliance check of the Home Office’s fire and rescue incident statistics against the Code of Practice and the results can be found in a letter to the Home Office’s Head of Profession published on the OSR website.

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

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 30 June 2021. This includes incident records that were submitted to the IRS by 27 September 2021, when a snapshot of the database was taken for the purpose of analysis. As a snapshot of the dataset was taken on 27 September 2021, the statistics published may not match those held locally by FRSs and revisions may occur in the future. This is particularly the case for statistics with relatively small numbers, such as fire-related fatalities. For instance, this can occur because coroner’s reports may mean the initial view taken by the FRS will need to be revised; this can take many months, even years, to do so.

COVID-19 and the impact on the IRS

The figures presented in this release relate to incidents attended by FRSs during year ending June 2021. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, restrictions in England, Scotland and Wales started from 12 March 2020. In England three lockdowns which applied strict limits on daily life were imposed. A first lockdown was applied on 23 March 2020 and was eased from 15 June 2020, a second lockdown began on 5 November 2020 and ended on 2 December 2020 and the third began on 4 January 2021 and ended on 12 April 2021. The restrictions and lockdowns are therefore captured in IRS data for this year and the comparator year.

Extra analyses on fire and rescue incidents during this period can be found in the previous edition of this release and Detailed analysis of fires attended by fire and rescue services, England, April 2020 to March 2021. We plan to publish more detailed analysis on the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns in Detailed Analysis of Response Times.

Other related publications

Home Office publish five other statistical releases covering fire and rescue services.

These include:

• Detailed analysis of fires attended by fire and rescue services in England: focuses on fires attended by fire and rescue services 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.

• 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.

• Response times to fires attended by fire and rescue services, England: covers statistics on trends in average response times to fires attended by fire and rescue services.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities also publish statistical releases on fire

These include:

• the English Housing Survey: 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

• the English Housing Survey: feeling safe from fire 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.

National Statistics

These statistics have been assessed by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure that they continue to meet the standards required to be designated as National Statistics. This statistical bulletin is produced to the highest professional standards and is free from political interference. It has been produced by statisticians working in accordance with the Home Office’s Statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, which covers Home Office policy on revisions and other matters. The Chief Statistician, as Head of Profession, reports to the National Statistician with respect to all professional statistical matters and oversees all Home Office National Statistics products with respect to the Code, being responsible for their timing, content and methodology. This means that these statistics meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, impartiality, quality and public value, and are fully compliant with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

1. Collaborating incidents include “Assisting other agencies”, “Effecting entry or exit” and “Suicide or suicide attempts”. ↩

2. Medical incidents include “First responder” and “Co-responder” incidents. ↩

3. For more detailed technical definitions of fire-related and non-fatal casualties, see the Fire Statistics Definitions document. A further breakdown of the different types of non-fatal casualties is available in the published fire data tables. ↩

4. For more information on the Grenfell Tower fire and how the associated fire-related fatalities figures are recorded, see the Fire Statistics Definitions document. ↩

5. Primary fires are those that meet at least one of the following criteria - occurred in a (non-derelict) building, vehicle or outdoor structure or involved a fatality, casualty or rescue or were attended by five or more pumping appliances. ↩

6. Secondary fires are generally small outdoor fires, not involving people or property. ↩