National Statistics 2016-17

This release presents statistics which are referred to as the year ending September 2017 (1 October 2016 to 30 September 2017) for fire and rescue services (FRSs) in England. This is the second set of statistics published by the Home Office that cover the Grenfell Tower fire.

The results show:

FRSs attended 566,572 incidents in the year ending September 2017. This was a three per cent increase compared with the previous year (548,899) but a 34 per cent decrease compared with ten years ago (854,371 in 2006/07). The total number of incidents was on a downward trend for around a decade, though they have increased in recent years mainly driven by increases in non-fire incidents attended. However, the increase this year was mainly driven by an increase in fires attended.

FRSs attended 170,519 fires in the year ending September 2017. This was a nine per cent increase compared with the previous year (156,671) but a 49 per cent decrease compared with ten years ago (336,233 in 2006/07). FRSs attended 222,997 fire false alarms in the year ending September 2017. This was an increase of less than one per cent compared with the previous year (222,222) but a 37 per cent decrease compared with ten years ago (352,136).

FRSs attended 173,056 non-fire incidents in the year ending September 2017. This was a two per cent increase compared with the previous year (170,006). For around a decade, there had been a general decline in the number of non-fire incidents. However, the last two years have shown large increases, largely due to a rise in medical incidents attended. Of all incidents attended by FRSs in the year ending September 2017, fires accounted for 30 per cent and non-fire incidents 31 per cent. The remaining 39 per cent were fire false alarms, which continued to be the largest incident type. In 2006/07 these percentages were 39 per cent (fires attended), 19 per cent (non-fire incidents) and 41 per cent (fire false alarms).

The number of fire-related fatalities had been on a general downward trend since 1981/82 when there were 755 fire-related fatalities.

In the year ending September 2017, however, there were 346 fire-related fatalities (including 71 from the Grenfell Tower fire) compared with 253 in the previous year (an increase of 37%). There were 3,297 non-fatal casualties requiring hospital treatment1 in the year ending September 2017 (including 77 from the Grenfell Tower fire). This was a four per cent increase compared with the previous year (3,159) but a 23 per cent decrease compared with five years ago (4,297 in 2011/12).

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