Restaurants, takeaways and other food businesses need to manage cooking equipment, hot oils, grease deposits and the demands of a busy service. This guide brings together England’s latest food-and-drink premises fire figures, guidance on kitchen hazards and the relevant audit and enforcement data. Each statistic identifies the premises category it covers.

Reviewed 15 October 2026. Fire and audit figures cover England in 2025/26. Food-and-drink premises figures include fires outside kitchens; licensed-premises audit figures cover a different, broader licensing category.

Key facts and figures

  • 1,275 fires occurred in food and drink premises in England in 2025/26.
  • 18.5% of fires across the nine sectors in our workplace guide involved food and drink premises, England 2025/26.
  • 103 non-fatal casualties were recorded in food and drink premises fires in England in 2025/26.
  • 1,145 fires in food and drink premises were classified as accidental in England in 2025/26.
  • 130 fires in food and drink premises were classified as deliberate in England in 2025/26.
  • 195 enforcement notices were issued to licensed premises in England in 2025/26; this audit category extends beyond restaurants.

Restaurant and kitchen fires: the premises figures

The official property-type table, FIRE0301, records 1,275 fires in food and drink premises in England in 2025/26, comprising 1,145 accidental and 130 deliberate fires. The category includes more than restaurants, and the figures count fires throughout those premises, rather than only fires starting in kitchens. There were 103 non-fatal casualties in these incidents.

Food and drink premises represented 18.5% of the 6,896 fires across the nine selected sectors in our workplace statistics guide. They had the second-largest count among those groups, behind industrial premises. This is a selected-sector comparison for England, rather than a share of every UK workplace fire or a ranking of risk per premises.

Across those same nine groups, fires fell 26.2% between 2015/16 and 2025/26, from 9,349 to 6,896. The broader trend does not remove the need to manage the hazards present in each kitchen and food business.

Commercial kitchen fire causes

London Fire Brigade’s restaurant and takeaway guidance highlights the need to manage cooking appliances and kitchen extraction systems as part of a suitable fire risk assessment. The main hazards and precautions include:

  • Cooking fats and oils — provide suitable firefighting equipment and make sure staff understand the emergency procedure; water can spread a burning-oil fire.
  • Grills and fryers — manage operating temperatures and maintain equipment and safety controls.
  • Ovens and ranges — keep equipment clean and prevent grease or combustible deposits from accumulating.
  • Extraction systems — BESA baseline cleaning intervals are every 3 months for heavy use, 6 months for moderate use and 12 months for light use. Set the actual schedule through risk assessment and grease-load checks.
  • Electrical equipment — inspect and maintain catering equipment and report damaged leads, plugs or signs of overheating.

The BESA usage bands are 12–16 hours a day for heavy use, 6–12 for moderate use and 2–6 for light use. These are baseline maintenance intervals, rather than a universal legal cleaning schedule.

For premises in England and Wales covered by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person must assess fire risk and implement suitable precautions. Government workplace fire-safety guidance and London Fire Brigade’s food-business guidance describe the practical responsibilities:

  • Carry out and review a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment.
  • Provide and maintain appropriate fire detection, warning and evacuation arrangements.
  • Manage cooking and extraction hazards through suitable inspection, maintenance and cleaning.
  • Provide staff with appropriate fire-safety information and training.
  • Arrange competent assistance with fire prevention and emergency procedures, including fire wardens where appropriate.

For wider context, 29,909 of 50,195 fire safety audits in England in 2025/26 were satisfactory (60%), according to the official protection statistics. These results cover premises selected for audit across all categories; they are not a restaurant-only compliance rate.

Deliberate fires in food and drink premises

The official incident statistics record 130 deliberate fires in food and drink premises in England in 2025/26. This is a defined premises category and reporting year; it does not represent all hospitality premises or the number of criminal arson convictions.

Include deliberate ignition in the premises’ risk assessment. Secure accessible combustible waste and storage areas, review access and security arrangements, and make sure staff report concerns. These precautions sit alongside the controls for accidental kitchen fires.

Enforcement activity

The 2025/26 protection statistics record 4,940 audits of licensed premises in England, of which 2,591 were satisfactory (52%). Authorities issued 195 Article 30 enforcement notices to licensed premises. The licensed-premises audit category is different from the food-and-drink incident category and extends beyond restaurants, so the two datasets should not be treated as the same population.

Across all premises categories, authorities recorded 33 prosecutions in 2025/26, compared with 35 in 2024/25. Keeping escape routes usable, maintaining precautions and reviewing the risk assessment are central parts of the responsible person’s duties.

A serious fire can leave a restaurant facing repairs, lost stock and disrupted trading. Plan for those consequences as well as evacuation and immediate safety. Our cost-of-fire guide explains the historical financial evidence and what it covers.

Make sure your kitchen and front-of-house teams have trained fire wardens in place.

Explore the Fire Warden / Fire Marshal Course →

Sources & references

Mark McShane
Mark McShane
Fire Safety Training Specialist, Online CPD Academy

Mark writes about workplace fire safety, compliance and online training for Fire Marshal Training, part of Online CPD Academy.