UK Fire Statistics You’ll Want to Read

Fires: a terrifying thought. For most of us, fortunately, they’re nothing more than a news item or bad dream. But, the sad truth is, they happen more often than you might think. UK fire statistics can be shocking to say the least.

Fire rescue services attend more than half a million incidents per year

While the number of incidents attended by fire rescue services in England dropped by 3% in the past year, the number is still incredibly high at 557,299. Of course, their services are required for circumstances other than fires, but of those half-a-million-plus incidents, a whopping 28% were fires. That’s over 150,000 actual emergency situations involving a fire, in one year.

To be precise, 154,000 fires in just 365 days – more than 400 per day.

Let that sink in.

Almost all fire fatalities happen in dwelling fires

Of the fires that year, 82% of the people who lost their lives did so in a dwelling. Yes – that means inside someone’s home. Aside from the fatalities, there were almost 7,000 non-fatal casualties to be taken care of in the same year.

Men are more at risk than women

In the year ending March 2020, the numbers were swaying heavily toward men being more likely to die in a fire. The overall fatality rate for men sat at 5.5 per million, whilst the rate for women was 3.1 per million. While the reasoning behind this isn’t exactly clear, it’s unpleasant food for thought.

Cooking appliances make up half of fire causes

48% of dwelling fires were caused by cooking appliances; those same fires accounted for 49% of non-fatal casualties (yet only 14% of fatalities). The category is split between two types of incident: started by misuse of cooking equipment (34%), or started by “faulty appliances and leads” (15%).

Smoke alarms are nowhere to be seen

Perhaps one of the most worrying of the UK fire statistics, certainly from the perspective of a fire risk assessment company. Of all dwelling fires up to the year ending March 2020, no smoke alarm was present for a quarter of incidents. That’s not a smoke alarm which didn’t sound. It’s not a smoke alarm which was faulty, or needed its batteries replacing: there simply wasn’t one there.

These UK fire statistics might make for particularly heavy reading, but it’s information which should be shared. Fires don’t seem real until they happen – so be aware, and make sure your property (or that of your tenants) is ready should the worst happen.

For fire risk assessments, fire prevention services and more from Excel Fire, get in touch today.

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