Care homes combine residents who may need help to evacuate with the fire safety duties of a working, occupied building. Detection, compartmentation, evacuation planning and trained staff all matter. This guide brings together official England audit and enforcement figures for 2025/26, wider fire-fatality data and fire-service guidance on residential care. The care-home figures below describe inspections and enforcement.
Reviewed 15 October 2026. Annual figures cover England, April 2025 to March 2026, unless another period or geography is stated. Historical studies, guidance and court cases are labelled separately.
Key facts and figures
- 6,004 fire safety audits of care homes were carried out in England in 2025/26.
- 148 enforcement notices were issued to care homes in England in 2025/26, down from 194 in 2024/25.
- 7.8% of all Article 30 enforcement notices in England in 2025/26 related to care homes.
- 41% of residential care-home fires are attributed to cooking and cookers in London Fire Brigade guidance; no reporting year is specified.
- 40% of all fire-related fatalities in England in 2025/26 involved people aged 65 and over.
- 61% of care-home fire safety audits in England in 2025/26 were satisfactory (3,634 of 6,004).
Fire in care homes: a demanding safety setting
Residents may have mobility limitations, cognitive impairment or care needs that complicate evacuation. The premises-specific figures in MHCLG table FIRE1202 show 6,004 care-home audits in England in 2025/26. These are audit records, not a count of fires or of every care home in the country.
Care homes received 148 Article 30 enforcement notices, compared with 194 in 2024/25. An enforcement notice requires specified deficiencies to be remedied. It is a different measure from a prosecution or a fire incident, and should be read alongside the audit findings.
The care home fire risk profile
A care home cannot assume that every resident can leave unaided when an alarm sounds. Its fire strategy must account for people who may be asleep, immobile or dependent on staff at any hour. That places particular demands on detection, compartmentation and staffing.
- Residents may be unable to self-evacuate because of dementia, disability or other care needs.
- London Fire Brigade guidance attributes 41% of residential care-home fires to cooking and cookers. The guidance does not specify a reporting period; this is not a current annual UK estimate.
- Sleeping accommodation calls for evacuation planning and drills suited to both day and night staffing.
- Oxygen use needs careful management because oxygen-enriched environments can intensify combustion.
- Agencies and contractors need clear information about their fire safety responsibilities.
Across all settings in England, people aged 65 and over accounted for 40% of fire-related fatalities in 2025/26, according to the detailed fire statistics. This is wider population context, not a care-home fatality rate. Separately, 86% of Home Fire Safety Visits in England in 2025/26 targeted households with at least one vulnerability or risk factor: 507,527 of 589,278 visits. Those are domestic visits, not care-home audits.
Compliance and enforcement
Care homes received 7.8% of all Article 30 enforcement notices in England in 2025/26: 148 of 1,896. Of the 6,004 care-home audits, 3,634 (61%) were satisfactory and 2,370 (39%) were unsatisfactory. Audits are targeted through local risk programmes; the results are not a random survey of every care home, and an unsatisfactory audit does not always lead to formal enforcement.
The most frequently recorded care-home non-compliances resulting in action, excluding prosecutions, were listed under these provisions of the Fire Safety Order in table FIRE1204:
- Article 14 — 1,339: emergency routes and exits.
- Article 17 — 918: maintenance of fire precautions.
- Article 8 — 881: general fire precautions.
These are counts against individual articles, not counts of unique premises. A single audit can identify more than one issue.
| Measure | Figure | Period / scope |
|---|---|---|
| Care-home fire safety audits | 6,004 | England, 2025/26 |
| Care-home enforcement notices | 148 | England, 2025/26; 7.8% of all Article 30 notices |
| Care-home enforcement notices, previous year | 194 | England, 2024/25; revised figure |
| Residential care-home fires attributed to cooking/cookers | 41% | London Fire Brigade guidance; reporting year unspecified |
| Fire deaths aged 65+ (all settings) | 40% | England, 2025/26 |
| Satisfactory care-home fire safety audits | 61% | England, 2025/26; 3,634 of 6,004 |
Enforcement and prosecution: the consequences of failure
The 2025/26 protection tables record several distinct forms of formal action involving care homes in England:
- 148 enforcement notices required action to remedy deficiencies.
- 165 formal notifications in total included the different types of formal notices and prosecutions.
- 2 prosecutions were recorded in the care-home premises category.
These figures describe different enforcement measures and should not be added together. Keeping the fire risk assessment current, maintaining fire precautions and training staff help the responsible person meet their duties before deficiencies require formal action.
What good fire safety in care homes looks like
Effective care home fire safety is built on a small number of well-executed fundamentals:
- A suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment that explicitly addresses resident vulnerabilities.
- Individual Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) for non-ambulatory residents.
- A Progressive Horizontal Evacuation strategy that uses fire compartmentation to move residents to safety within the building.
- Specialised fire marshal training for staff so they can lead an evacuation confidently.
- Appropriate fire drills, including night-time drills to test the response of night staff, when staffing is lowest.
Make sure your care home has trained, competent fire wardens in place.
Explore the Fire Warden / Fire Marshal Course →Sources & references
- MHCLG — Fire prevention and protection, England, April 2025 to March 2026
- MHCLG — FIRE1202: fire safety audits and formal notifications by premises type
- MHCLG — FIRE1204: non-compliance and prosecutions
- MHCLG — Detailed analysis of fires, England, year ending March 2026
- London Fire Brigade — Residential care homes guidance (reporting period unspecified)
Mark writes about workplace fire safety, compliance and online training for Fire Marshal Training, part of Online CPD Academy.