Fire statistics show how incidents are distributed across different types of premises, from offices and shops to factories and hospitals. This guide uses England’s latest published incident and protection data, with a consistent nine-sector breakdown for the headline workplace figures. It also explains the broader official building category, ignition sources, the ten-year trend and fire-safety enforcement.
Reviewed 15 October 2026. Incident and audit figures cover England in 2025/26. The headline workplace total is a defined nine-sector subtotal; broader other-building figures and historical UK cost evidence are labelled separately.
Key facts and figures
- 6,896 fires were attended across the nine building groups in the sector table, England 2025/26.
- 8 fire-related fatalities were recorded across those same nine building groups in England in 2025/26.
- 26.2% fewer fires occurred across the nine groups than in 2015/16, when the revised total was 9,349.
- 1,806 fires involved industrial premises, the largest count among the nine groups, England 2025/26.
- 2,304 fires involved electrical distribution as the ignition source across the broader other-buildings category, England 2025/26.
- 60% of fire safety audits across all audited premises in England in 2025/26 were satisfactory.
How this guide counts workplace fires
The official England fire statistics classify incidents by property type. Their other-buildings category covers buildings outside dwellings, including many workplaces, communal living premises, garages and sheds. It is not a single, complete measure of workplace fires.
For a comparable sector breakdown, this guide adds the nine groups shown below: industrial, food and drink, retail, hotels and similar accommodation, hospitals and medical care, education, entertainment and sport, agriculture, and offices and call centres. This selected-sector subtotal excludes other official groups, some of which also contain workplaces. All incident figures in this guide are for England.
How many workplace fires are there?
Fire and rescue services attended 6,896 fires across the nine selected groups in England between April 2025 and March 2026. These fires resulted in 8 fire-related fatalities. The wider official total for all other buildings was 13,679 fires and 17 fatalities. Keep these two populations separate when comparing counts or percentages.
Workplace fires by sector
Industrial premises had the largest fire count among the nine selected groups, followed by food and drink premises and retail. The FIRE0301 property-type table supplies the counts below; each share uses the same 6,896-fire subtotal. Incident counts do not measure the chance of a fire at an individual premises.
| Sector | Fires (2025/26) | Share of nine groups |
|---|---|---|
| Industrial premises | 1,806 | 26.2% |
| Food & drink premises | 1,275 | 18.5% |
| Retail | 1,195 | 17.3% |
| Hotels, boarding houses & hostels | 551 | 8.0% |
| Hospitals & medical care | 475 | 6.9% |
| Education | 445 | 6.5% |
| Entertainment, culture & sport | 413 | 6.0% |
| Agriculture | 397 | 5.8% |
| Offices & call centres | 339 | 4.9% |
Ignition sources in other-building fires
The ignition-source figures use the broader 13,679 other-building fires in England in 2025/26. In FIRE0602, electrical distribution was the recorded source in 2,304 fires, about 17%. That identifies the source of ignition; it does not establish an electrical fault in every incident.
The other/unspecified source group accounted for 6,326 fires (46.2%). It combines many identified sources, such as industrial equipment and burning material, with unspecified sources. It should not be read as the number of fires whose source could not be identified. Inspection, maintenance and good housekeeping remain practical ways to manage electrical and other ignition hazards.
The ten-year trend
Across the same nine groups, fires fell from 9,349 in 2015/16 to 6,896 in 2025/26, a 26.2% decrease. These figures use the revised history in the current FIRE0301 dataset. The latest total was above the revised 2024/25 figure of 6,703, so the long-term decline should not be mistaken for a fall in every year.
The figures describe the change in incidents. They do not, on their own, isolate how much of the change came from regulation, equipment, business activity or other factors.
The cost of fire to business
Historical research illustrates the scale of major losses. FPA research published in 2020 reported an average recorded loss of £657,074 across 4,782 major UK building fires in 2009–2019, each involving losses of at least £100,000. The sample included commercial, public and residential or mixed-occupancy buildings, so it is not a current average workplace-fire cost.
Evidence submitted to Parliament also records £940 million in UK industrial and commercial fire and explosion claims incurred by ABI members in 2018, excluding business interruption. For a business facing a fire, damage, disrupted trading and lost customers can all affect recovery. Our guide to the cost of fire explains the coverage and periods behind these estimates.
Fire safety compliance and enforcement
The 2025/26 England protection statistics record 50,195 fire safety audits. Of these, 29,909 were satisfactory (60%) and 20,286 were unsatisfactory (40%). These results concern premises selected for audit; they are not a survey of compliance across every business.
Authorities recorded 3,355 formal notifications, including prosecutions, up 10.9% from the revised 2024/25 total of 3,026, alongside 18,039 informal notifications. There were 33 prosecutions, down from 35 in 2024/25, a fall of 5.7%. The figures cover all premises in the protection statistics, rather than only the nine incident groups above.
The three most frequently recorded categories of non-compliance resulting in action were:
- Article 14 — emergency routes and exits: 11,286 instances.
- Article 17 — maintenance: 9,727 instances.
- Article 9 — risk assessment: 9,271 instances.
These are counts of recorded non-compliance, not unique premises or defendants. They underline the importance of usable escape routes, maintained precautions and a suitable risk assessment.
The legal duty: who is responsible?
For workplaces covered by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in England and Wales, the responsible person has duties to assess fire risk and put appropriate precautions in place. Government guidance on workplace fire safety explains responsibilities for assessment, maintenance, evacuation arrangements and staff training; Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate legislation.
Serious offences can result in unlimited fines and up to two years in prison, as set out in the government’s enforcement guidance. Competent people, including trained fire wardens where appropriate, help implement the arrangements identified by the risk assessment.
What reduces workplace fire risk
Use the fire risk assessment to identify the hazards at the premises and the people who could be affected. HSE guidance covers controlling ignition sources and combustible materials, maintaining suitable precautions, providing clear escape routes and preparing staff for an emergency. Fire wardens can support routine checks and evacuation arrangements within those plans.
Make sure your workplace has trained fire wardens in place.
Explore the Fire Warden / Fire Marshal Course →Sources & references
- MHCLG — Detailed analysis of fires, England, year ending March 2026
- Official data tables — FIRE0301 property types and FIRE0602 ignition sources
- MHCLG — Fire prevention and protection, England, 2025/26; FIRE1202 and FIRE1204
- FPA — Historical major-building-fire research, 2009–2019 (2020 release hosted by CIC)
- Business Sprinkler Alliance — Parliamentary evidence on ABI-member claims in 2018
- GOV.UK — Fire safety in the workplace
- HSE — Introduction to fire safety
- GOV.UK — Workplace fire safety enforcement, appeals and penalties
Mark writes about workplace fire safety, compliance and online training for Fire Marshal Training, part of Online CPD Academy.