Accredited official statistics

Detailed analysis of non-fire incidents: England, April 2023 to March 2024

Published 5 December 2024

Applies to England

Frequency of release: Annual

Forthcoming releases: Home Office statistics release calendar

Home Office responsible statistician: Daniel Farrugia

Press enquiries: 0300 123 3535

Public enquiries: [email protected]

This release contains statistics about non-fire incidents attended by fire and rescue services (FRSs) in England for the year ending March 2024 (1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024). The statistics are sourced from the Home Office’s online Incident Recording System (IRS) and include statistics on all non-fire incidents and related fatalities and non-fatal casualties, with long-term comparisons.

This release provides more detailed analysis of the already published trends in non-fire incidents for the year ending March 2024. For the latest headline findings on non-fire incidents numbers see Fire and rescue incident statistics: England, year ending June 2024, published 24 October 2024.

FRSs attend many types of incidents that are not fires or fire false alarms. These are known as non-fire incidents or special service incidents. Examples include flooding incidents, responding to road traffic collisions (RTCs), animal assistance, effecting entry/exit and assisting other agencies (see FIRE0901 for the full list of non-fire incident types).

1. Key results

In the year ending March 2024:

• there were 207,448 non-fire incidents, the highest number of incidents since comparable data became available, an increase of 4.1% compared with the previous year (199,284), an increase of 28% compared with 5 years ago (162,389) and an increase of 58% compared with 10 years ago (131,418)
• collaborating incidents (collaborating incidents are incidents that involve collaboration with other emergency services, not including medical incidents; this incident type consists of effecting entry/exit, assist other agencies and suicide (including attempts) incidents) accounted for an increasing proportion of non-fire incidents, up to 33% compared to 16% in the year ending March 2014
• there were 67,897 collaborating incidents, an increase of 6.6% compared with the previous year (63,683), an increase of 63% compared with 5 years ago (41,635), and an increase of 232% compared with 10 years ago (20,460)

Figure KR.1: Top 5 most common non-fire incident types, England, year ending March 2011 to year ending March 2024

Notes:

1. The 5 categories in this chart account for 72% of all non-fire incidents. The 28% of incidents not included are spread across 14 different incident types. The full list of incidents can be found in table FIRE0901

• there were 4,487 fatalities in non-fire incidents, an increase of 16% compared with the previous year (3,881), an increase of 82% compared with 5 years ago (2,465) and an increase of 177% compared with 10 years ago (1,618)
• there were 22.7 fatalities per 1,000 non-fire incidents (excludes non-fire false alarms), with the fatality rate peaking at 30.3 per 1,000 non-fire incidents in the year ending March 2017, when medical incidents contributed more to the incident mix (coinciding with the emergency medical responding trials (in these trials, FRSs formed agreements with ambulance trusts to undertake health and care related work, in particular co-responding)

Figure KR.2: Number of non-fire incidents and rate of fatalities per 1,000 incidents, England, year ending March 2011 to year ending March 2024

2. Non-fire incidents summary

Each year the content of this release is reviewed to ensure topics of interest are reported. This year’s release includes chapters covering:

• overall trends in non-fire incidents
• fatalities and non-fatal casualties
• collaborating incidents
• road traffic collisions (RTCs)
• medical incidents
• flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents

For ease of presentation and analysis in this release and its related tables, some non-fire incident types are grouped together where appropriate:

• the categories ‘Medical incident - First responder’ and ‘Medical incident - Co-responder’ are grouped together in the ‘Medical incidents’ category
• the categories ‘Assisting other agencies’, ‘Effecting entry/exit’ and ‘Suicide (including attempts)’ are grouped together in the ‘Collaborating incidents’ category
• the categories ‘Flooding’, and ‘Rescue or evacuation from water’ are grouped together in the ‘Flooding and rescue or evacuation from water’ category
• many of the smaller non-fire incident types which do not fit neatly within the other main categories are grouped together in the ‘Other’ category

Where an incident requires an FRS to undertake multiple actions (a suicide attempt and a rescue from water, for example), it is recorded as the action that was the most resource intensive.

2.1 Key results

In the year ending March 2024, FRSs attended:

• the highest number of non-fire incidents since comparable data became available (207,448), an increase of 4.1% compared with the previous year (199,284), and an increase of 28% (162,389) compared with 5 years ago; Source: FIRE0901

The most common categories of non-fire incidents attended were:

• effecting entry/exit, 36,603 incidents, the highest number on record and an increase of 9.6% compared with the previous year (33,392)
• RTCs, 31,860 incidents, the highest number on record and an increase of 2.1% compared with the previous year (31,193)
• assisting other agencies, 28,181 incidents, the highest number on record and an increase of 2.6% compared with the previous year (27,463)
• flooding and rescue or evacuation from water, 20,208 incidents, the highest number on record and an increase of 5.1% compared with the previous year (19,231)
• medical incidents, 15,203 incidents, a decrease of 10% compared with the previous year (16,905)

The increase in effecting entry/exit and assist other agency incidents are 2 of the 3 collaborating incident types and therefore explain the increase in this grouped incident type.

2.2 Trends in non-fire incidents

Between the year ending March 2000 and the year ending March 2009, the number of non-fire incidents fluctuated between 155,000 and 175,000 (see FIRE0901 for more detail). There was then a general decline to around 125,000 in the year ending March 2015.

Following this period of decline, there were 2 substantial year-on-year increases. In the year ending March 2016, the number of non-fire incidents increased to around 153,000 and increased further in the year ending March 2017 to around 175,000. These increases coincided with the introduction of the National Joint Council (NJC) supported trials of emergency medical responding (EMR) in 2015. In these trials, FRSs formed agreements with ambulance trusts to undertake health and care related work, in particular co-responding. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) removed support for the trials in September 2017, which likely drove the subsequent reduction in the number of non-fire incidents. Additionally, in 2017 the Police and Crime Act placed a duty on emergency services to collaborate.

Between the year ending March 2017 and the year ending March 2020, the number of non-fire incidents fluctuated between 162,000 and 175,000. This was followed by a large reduction down to around 151,000 in the year ending March 2021, likely due to the impact of COVID-19 restrictions that were in place for much of that period. In the year ending March 2022, the number of non-fire incidents increased to 194,652.

The 2 subsequent years have seen increases, reaching 207,448 in the latest year, the largest number recorded since data became available in the year ending March 2000.

The number of non-fire incidents attended over the last 10 years has increased both in terms of the absolute number and as a proportion of all incidents attended. In the latest year, non-fire incidents accounted for 35% of all incidents, compared to 16% 10 years ago.

Figure 2.1: Incidents attended by FRSs in England, by incident type, year ending March 2011 to the year ending March 2024

Source: FIRE0102

Notes:

1. Non-fire incidents include non-fire false alarms.

2.3 Main categories of non-fire incidents

Detailed data on non-fire incident types were first collected when FRSs began to submit records via the online IRS in the year ending March 2010. Table FIRE0902 provides more detail on the action taken under each of the 23 specific non-fire incident types.

In the year ending March 2024, the individual categories that had the highest numerical increase compared to the previous year were:

• effecting entry/exit, increasing by 3,211 incidents (9.6% increase)
• no action, increasing by 1,477 incidents (12% increase)
• making safe (not RTC), increasing by 1,236 incidents (36% increase)
• rescue or evacuation from water, increasing by 1,017 incidents (73% increase)

See table 8.1 for all main categories and table FIRE0901 for all specific non-fire incident types.

As seen in table 8.1, trends have varied across the non-fire incident main categories over the last 10 years. RTCs have steadily increased, with the exception of a steep drop in the year ending March 2021, during which there were restrictions on life due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2015, all 3 of the collaborating incident categories have seen large increases in incidents attended by FRS because of the government’s commitment to driving increased collaboration between the emergency services (see chapter 4 for more detail).

Medical incidents attended saw a sharp increase around the year ending March 2017, predominantly due to the introduction of the EMR trials; however, in the latest year the number of medical incidents attended has fallen to a similar level to before the commencement of the trials. Flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents have fluctuated - the fluctuation in the number of incidents attended appears to be linked to rainfall (see figure 7.1).

Figure 2.2 below shows the change in proportion of incidents by type over time. In the year ending March 2024, the trends were:

• collaborating incidents accounted for 33% of non-fire incidents, compared with 16% 10 years ago
• RTCs accounted for 15% of non-fire incidents, compared with 21% 10 years ago
• flooding and rescue or evacuation from water accounted for 9.7% compared with 12% 10 years ago
• medical incidents accounted for 7.3% compared with 10% 10 years ago

Figure 2.2: Proportion of non-fire incidents attended, by main categories, England, year ending March 2011 to year ending March 2024

Notes:

1. Other includes the following incident types: lift release, no action (not false alarm), false alarms, removal of objects from people, animal assistance incidents, other rescue / release of persons, making safe (not RTC), hazardous materials incident, advice only, spills and leaks (not RTC), advice only, other transport incident, evacuation (no fire), stand by, water provision.

2.4 Other categories of non-fire incidents

Notable non-fire incident types that are grouped into ‘Other’ include: no action (not false alarm), lift release and non-fire false alarm.

In the latest year, there were 14,311 no action incidents, the highest number on record, an increase of 12% compared with the previous year, an increase of 75% compared with 5 years ago, and an increase of 140% compared with 10 years ago. The number of these incidents has increased, likely because of the increase in collaborating incidents, which can result in FRSs being initially called to assist, but upon attendance circumstances may have changed and the FRS’s assistance may no longer be required.

In the year ending March 2024, FRSs attended 12,546 ‘lift release’ incidents, virtually unchanged compared with 12,560 in the previous year, an increase of 9.0% in the year ending March 2019 (11,514) and an increase of 12% in the year ending March 2014 (11,194).

When looking at the specific sub-categories of lift release from the IRS, in the year ending March 2024:

• ‘for able bodied person not in distress’ accounted for the highest proportion of lift release incidents (71%), followed by ‘for person in distress’ (16%) and ‘no persons involved’ (5.4%)
• the proportion of lift release incidents accounted for by each sub-category has remained broadly stable since year ending March 2013; see FIRE0902 for further detail

In the year ending March 2024, FRSs attended 9,785 non-fire false alarms. This is an increase of 7.5% compared with the previous year (9,104) and an increase of 35% compared with 5 years ago (7,272). Of these, only 325 (3.3%) were malicious false alarms.

3. Fatalities and non-fatal casualties in non-fire incidents

The numbers of fatalities and non-fatal casualties in non-fire incidents is related to the number of non-fire incidents attended (for example, in general the more non-fire incidents FRSs attend, it is likely that the number of fatalities and non-fatal casualties will increase). Therefore, the rates of fatalities and non-fatal casualties per 1,000 incidents are also presented to understand the changing profile of fatalities and non-fatal casualties. Another key factor is the type of incidents FRSs attend, as incident types have varying rates of fatalities (see figure 3.1 for more detail).

The rates of fatalities and non-fatal casualties per 1,000 incidents exclude non-fire false alarms.

Key results

In year ending March 2024, there were:

• 4,487 fatalities in non-fire incidents, an increase of 16% compared with the previous year (3,881), an increase of 82% compared with 5 years ago (2,465) and an increase of 177% compared with 10 years ago (1,618)
• 22.7 fatalities per 1,000 non-fire incidents attended, compared with 20.4 in the previous year, 15.9 in year ending March 2019 and 12.9 in year ending March 2014
• 43,987 non-fatal casualties in non-fire incidents, an increase of 3.9% compared with the previous year (42,320), an increase of 13% compared with 5 years ago (39,087) and an increase of 50% compared with 10 years ago (29,286)
• 222.5 non-fatal casualties per 1,000 non-fire incidents attended, unchanged on the previous year, 252.0 in year ending March 2019 and 232.9 in year ending March 2014

3.1 Fatalities in non-fire incidents

Detailed comparable data on fatalities in non-fire incidents attended by FRSs first became available for the year ending March 2011 and remained stable at around 1,600 fatalities in each year up to and including the year ending March 2014. There was then a period of sharp increases (coinciding with the introduction of EMR trials), peaking in the year ending March 2017 at around 5,100. The termination of EMR trials led to a sharp decrease in the number of fatalities attended by FRSs to around 2,500 fatalities in the year ending March 2019. Since the year ending March 2020, the number of fatalities has increased year-on-year, reaching 4,487 in the latest year. This generally reflects the increase in the number of non-fire incidents, which highlights the importance of using a rate.

The main drivers of the overall increase in total fatalities in the year ending March 2024 compared with the previous year, was an increase in the number of fatalities in effecting entry/exit incidents (an increase of 310 compared with the previous year, up 39%) and assist other agencies (an increase of 169 compared with the previous year, up 17%).

Table 3.1: Number of fatalities and rate of fatalities in non-fire incidents and percentage change, England, comparing the year ending March 2024 with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Non-fire incident type	Fatalities - year ending March 2024	Fatalities - year ending March 2023	Rate of fatalities - year ending March 2024	Rate of fatalities - year ending March 2023
Total	4,487	3,881	22.7	19.5
Assist other agencies	1,184	1,015	42.0	47.0
Effecting entry/exit	1,097	787	30.0	23.6
Road Traffic Collision	677	658	21.2	21.1
Medical incidents	551	624	36.2	36.9
Suicide (including attempts)	403	403	129.5	126.2
Rescue or evacuation from water	189	117	78.4	83.9
Other	386	323	..	..

Source: FIRE0904a and FIRE0904b

Notes:

1. Rate of fatalities for ‘Other’ is not meaningful and so is excluded from the table

A better metric to understand the profile of fatalities against the number of incidents is the rate of fatalities per 1,000 incidents (see table 8.2).

The non-fire incident type category with the highest rate of fatalities in the year ending March 2024 was suicide (including attempts) with a rate of 129.5 per 1,000 incidents, compared with 126.2 in the previous year and 139.9 5 years ago (excluding ‘false alarms’ as these do not entail any fatalities by definition, ‘lift release’ as the numbers are too small to provide reliable rates and ‘other’ as this category consists of disparate incident types hence the rate is not meaningful). The nature of this incident type means it is likely to entail a high fatality rate. Excluding suicide (including attempts), the incident type with the highest fatality rate was rescue or evacuation from water, 78.4 fatalities per 1,000 incidents.

In the latest year, effecting entry/exit saw the largest proportional increase in rate of fatalities compared to the previous year, increasing from 23.6 to 30.0 (25% increase) and the highest rate on record.

There was a spike in the rate (67.2 per 1,000 incidents) and volume of fatalities (3,104) in medical incidents in the year ending March 2017. This coincided with the period of the EMR trials. This likely entailed FRSs attending a greater number of emergency medical incidents, in which fatalities were more likely than medical incidents previously attended. In the latest year, there were 36.2 per 1,000 incidents.

See figure 3.1, table 8.2 and FIRE0904 for further detail.

Figure 3.1: Rate of fatalities for each non-fire incident type (main categories) per 1,000 incidents, England, year ending March 2011 to year ending March 2024

Source: FIRE0904b

Notes:

1. The ‘Suicide (including attempts)’ and the ‘Rescue or evacuation from water’ incident types are excluded due to the significantly higher fatality rate compared with the other incident types, which would impact the scale if included.

3.2 Non-fatal casualties in non-fire incidents

Non-fatal casualties are split into 4 sub-categories:

Hospital severe - at least an overnight stay in hospital as an in-patient

Hospital slight - attending hospital as an outpatient (not a precautionary check)

First aid given - first aid given at scene (by anyone), including after a precautionary check

Precautionary check - a precautionary check (to attend hospital or to see a doctor) was recommended (by anyone)

The number of non-fatal casualties in non-fire incidents remained relatively stable until the year ending March 2015 - a similar trajectory to fatalities. There were then 2 year-on-year increases in the years ending March 2016 and 2017, which coincided with the EMR trials. Between the years ending March 2017 and 2021, the number of non-fatal casualties fell each year. This was likely due to the reduction in the number of medical incidents attended by FRSs during this time and the COVID-19 restrictions in place for much of the year ending March 2021.

In the most recent 3 years, the number of non-fatal casualties has increased each year. In the latest year the non-fire incident categories with the largest annual changes in non-fatal casualties in percentage terms were:

• flooding, 70% increase to 70 incidents
• lift release, 50% increase to 170 incidents
• evacuation (no fire), 32% increase to 75 incidents

In terms of injury severity, of the 43,987 non-fatal casualties in non-fire incidents, these were recorded as:

• 10,619 as ‘hospital severe’, an increase of 5.0% on the previous year
• 16,638 as ‘hospital slight’, an increase of 2.6% on the previous year
• 4,939 as requiring first aid, virtually unchanged on the previous year
• 7,044 as requiring precautionary checks, an increase of 4.3% on the previous year
• 4,747 as unknown, an increase of 10% on the previous year

Figure 3.2: Number of non-fatal casualties in non-fire incidents, by injury severity, England, year ending March 2011 to year ending March 2024

Source: FIRE0904d

Notes:

1. Excludes injury severities recorded as unknown.

4. Collaborating incidents

Collaborating incidents are incidents that involve collaboration with other emergency services, not including medical incidents.

The following non-fire incident types are classed as incidents that could involve collaborating:

• effecting entry/exit
• assist other agencies
• suicide (including attempts)

Key results

In the year ending March 2024:

• FRSs attended 36,603 ‘effecting entry/exit’ incidents, an increase of 9.6% compared with the previous year (33,392), an increase of 47% compared with 5 years ago (24,904) and an increase of 142% compared with 10 years ago (15,130)
• FRSs attended 28,181 ‘assist other agency’ incidents, an increase of 2.6% compared with the previous year (27,463), an increase of 90% compared with 5 years ago (14,816) and an increase of 568% compared with 10 years ago (4,218)
• FRSs attended 3,113 ‘suicide (including attempts)’ incidents, an increase of 10% compared with the previous year (2,828), an increase of 63% compared with 5 years ago (1,915) and an increase of 180% compared with 10 years ago (1,112)

4.1 Trends in collaborating incidents

Between the years ending March 2010 and 2015, the 3 collaborating incident types showed little change. However, since then there has been an increase in each incident type. The exception to these increases was a decrease in ‘effecting entry/exit’ in year ending March 2021, likely due to COVID-19 restrictions (see figure 4.1). The increases have been a result of the government’s commitment to driving increased collaboration between the emergency services, which led to the Policing and Crime Act 2017 introducing a statutory duty to collaborate, imposed on all 3 emergency services (see Further information section for more detail). The increasing trend also coincided with the EMR trials, which ran from 2015 to 2017 (see chapter 6).

Between the years ending March 2015 (in 2015 the government committed to driving increased collaboration between the emergency services) and March 2024:

• assist other agencies incidents saw an increase of 523% from 4,520 to 28,181, fatalities an increase of 456% from 213 to 1,184 and the rate of fatalities (per 1,000 incidents) decreased from 47.1 to 42.0
• suicide (including attempts) incidents saw an increase of 183% from 1,101 to 3,113, fatalities an increase of 91% from 211 to 403 and the rate of fatalities (per 1,000 incidents) decreased from 191.6 to 129.5
• effecting entry/exit incidents saw an increase of 136% from 15,525 to 36,603, fatalities an increase of 986% from 101 to 1,097 and the rate of fatalities (per 1,000 incidents) decreased from 6.5 to 30.0

Effecting entry/exit incidents were the most frequently attended incident type by FRSs (see FIRE0901. In the latest year, the type of action involved at effecting entry/exit incidents was:

• ‘for able bodied person not in distress’ in 34% of cases (12,311), compared to 37% in year ending March 2015 (5,732)
• ‘for a medical case’ in 28% of cases (10,335), compared to 11% (1,753) in year ending March 2015
• ‘for child’ in 12% of cases (4,297), compared to 27% in year ending March 2015 (4,190)
• ‘for person in distress’ in 11% of cases (3,860), compared to 14% in year ending March 2015 (2,103)
• ‘no persons involved’ in 9.1% of cases (3,327), compared to 5.1% (792) in year ending March 2015
• ‘other’ in 6.8% of cases (2,473), compared to 6.2% in year ending March 2015 (955)

Figure 4.1: Number of collaborating incidents, England, year ending March 2010 to year ending March 2024

Source: FIRE0901

4.2 Collaborating incidents per 100,000 people

The number of collaborating incidents attended per 100,000 people for each of the 3 collaborating incident types follow a similar pattern of being relatively stable between the year ending March 2010 and the year ending March 2015. Since then, there was a trend of increases, except for a slight reduction in the rate of ‘effecting entry/exit’ in the year ending March 2021. See FIRE0903 for further detail.

In the year ending March 2024:

• FRSs attended 63.4 ‘effecting entry/exit’ incidents per 100,000 people in England, compared with a rate of 57.9 the previous year and a rate of 26.9 in the year ending March 2015
• the FRS that attended the most ‘effecting entry/exit’ incidents per 100,000 people in the year ending March 2024 was Greater London with a rate of 135, while Durham attended the least (excluding Isles of Scilly as they had none) with a rate of 12
• FRSs attended 48.8 ‘assist other agencies’ incidents per 100,000 people in England, compared with a rate of 47.6 the previous year and a rate of 7.8 in the year ending March 2015
• the FRS that attended the most ‘assist other agencies’ incidents per 100,000 people in year ending March 2024 was East Sussex with a rate of 116, while Greater Manchester attended the least with a rate of 8.0
• FRSs attended 5.4 ‘suicide (including attempts)’ incidents per 100,000 people in England, similar to the previous year (4.9) and higher than the rate of 1.9 in the year ending March 2015
• the FRSs that attended the most ‘suicides (including attempts)’ incidents per 100,000 people in year ending March 2024 was Tyne and Wear with a rate of 16, while the lowest rate recorded was Warwickshire with 1.5 (excluding Isles of Scilly as they had none).

Figure 4.2 Rate of collaborating incidents per 100,000 people by FRSs for year ending March 2015 and 2024

5. Road traffic collisions (RTCs)

RTCs (RTCs) - incidents that require the attendance of the FRS for collisions involving one or multiple vehicles (including large and small vehicles, motorbikes), where the incident did not involve a fire. These include incidents where FRSs attend the incident for safety reasons, where people are extricated or released from their vehicle and other reasons. RTCs that involve a fire are recorded as road vehicle fires and are therefore not included in this release, see table FIRE0302 for the latest data on these incidents. RTC incidents reported in this publication only include those attended by FRSs and do not reflect all RTC incidents that occur in England. See the Department for Transport (DfT) publication on Reported road collisions, vehicles and casualties tables for Great Britain for all RTCs.

Key results

In the year ending March 2024:

• FRSs attended 31,860 RTCs in England (the highest number on record), an increase of 2.1% compared with the previous year, an increase of 2.4% compared with 5 years ago, and an increase of 13% compared with 10 years ago
• FRS attendance at RTCs peaked during the evening rush hour from 17:00 to 18:00, while the number of RTC fatalities peaked in the afternoon between 12:00 and 15:00

5.1 RTC incidents overview

Between the years ending March 2010 (the first year data was collected) and 2013, the number of RTCs attended decreased from around 33,600 to around 27,900. Since then, the number fluctuated between around 28,000, and 32,000, except for the year ending March 2021 in which the number decreased to around 22,500. This was likely due to COVID-19 restrictions on daily life during this period, which led to less traffic on the roads. In the latest year, FRSs attended 31,860 RTCs, an increase of 2.1% compared with the previous year.

In the year ending March 2024, the rate of fatalities at RTCs was 21.2 per 1,000 incidents, and this has remained stable over the last 6 years.

The 3 most common types of action carried out at RTCs in the year ending March 2024 were:

• making the scene safe (10,990), accounting for 34% of all RTCs
• making the vehicle safe (9,789), accounting for 31% of all RTCs
• extrication of person(s) (3,695), accounting for 12% of all RTCs

The proportion of different action types in the year ending March 2024 was broadly consistent with previous years.

Figure 5.1: RTCs by detailed type of action, England, year ending March 2013 to year ending March 2024

Source: FIRE0902

Notes:

1. Comparable data on detailed type of action at RTCs is available from year ending March 2013 onwards. Prior to this some RTC detailed action types were not recorded.

5.2 RTCs and time of day

In the year ending March 2024, FRS attendance at RTCs was most common between 17:00 to 18:00. From 04:00 to 05:00 the proportion of RTCs in each hour band generally increased, peaking in the hour 17:00 to 18:00, when 7.5% of RTCs occurred. The proportion of RTCs reduced in each hour time band following the 17:00 to 18:00 peak. When looking at the ‘morning’ hours (06:00 to 12:00), incidents peaked between 08:00 and 09:00. These peaks coincide with the morning and evening rush hours, when there are typically more vehicles on the road.

Fatalities in RTCs show more fluctuation throughout the day, peaking in the late afternoon (14:00 to 15:00). Similar to RTC incident numbers, the fatalities occurred less frequently in the early hours of the morning, when there are typically less vehicles on the road. However, the proportion of RTCs that resulted in a fatality was highest during certain hours after midnight. The highest proportion of RTCs resulting in a fatality was seen between 05:00 and 06:00 (4.4%), followed by the hour between 00:00 and 01:00 (3.6%), and the hour between 04:00 and 05:00 (3.5%)

The proportion of RTC incidents attended by time of day was broadly similar year ending March 2024 compared with pre-pandemic figures (year ending March 2020).

Figure 5.2: Percentage of RTCs and fatalities in RTCs by hour of the day, England; year ending March 2024

Source: FIRE0906

5.3 Extrication of people from RTCs

Extrication is the removal or setting free of a person in difficulty, where equipment or expertise are necessary to remove someone from a situation (trapped in a vehicle RTC, for example). It includes extrication of fatal victims from an RTC incident.

Of the 31,860 RTCs attended by FRSs in the year ending March 2024, 12% (3,695) involved the extrication of at least one person, similar to the previous year (12%), but less than 15% 5 years ago (4,646) and 25% 10 years ago (6,896). See table FIRE0902 for more information.

The number of extrications from RTCs has been on a general downward trend since the year ending March 2010. There was a notable decrease in year ending March 2021, again likely due to the impact of COVID-19 restrictions and the reduced number of RTCs.

In the year ending March 2024, the most common method of extrication was ‘other space creation’, which accounted for 62% of all extrication incidents (2,413 incidents), followed by ‘roof removal’ which accounted for 19% (757 incidents). These have been the most common methods of extrication since data became available in year ending March 2010. See table FIRE0907 for more information.

6. Medical incidents

Medical co-responding incidents are incidents defined in the Incident Recording System (IRS) as, ‘the mobilisation of trained fire crews to provide emergency medical assistance to members of the public’.

Medical co-responding is where a formal agreement is in place with ambulance trusts. This differs to medical first responder incidents where no such agreement is in place. Co-responding involves both fire and ambulance services deploying to time critical incidents such as cardiac arrests.

The total number of medical incidents attended by FRSs has been collected since the year ending March 2000. However, it was only when the online IRS was introduced in the year ending March 2010 that information on the type of incident was collected.

Between 2015 and 2017, the NJC supported trials of EMR, where many FRSs formed agreements with ambulance trusts to undertake health and care related work, in particular co-responding. On 18 September 2017, the FBU removed support for EMR trials.

Medical first responder and medical co-responder incidents have been combined and stated as medical incidents in this publication for ease of reporting.

Key results

In the year ending March 2024, FRSs attended:

• 15,203 medical incidents, a decrease of 10% compared with the previous year (16,905), a decrease of 24% compared with 5 years ago (19,913) when EMR trials were in operation, but an increase of 11% compared with 10 years ago (13,655)
• the rate of fatalities per 1,000 incidents in medical incidents was 36.2, compared to 36.9 in the previous year, 16.8 in year ending March 2019, and 15.2 in year ending March 2014

6.1 Trends in medical incidents

Between the years ending March 2010 and 2011, there was no distinction made between first responder and co-responder medical incidents. From the year ending March 2012, these were recorded separately. As services were transitioning to recording these incidents separately, it is recommended that comparisons between years are only undertaken from the year ending March 2013 onwards. Figure 6.1 illustrates the transition in reporting, and the trend in medical incidents over time.

The large increase in non-fire incidents attended by FRSs in the years ending March 2016 and 2017 can be attributed to a large rise in the number of medical incidents attended. Medical incidents accounted for 26% (for more detail about the types of medical incident attended see FIRE0902) of non-fire incidents in the year ending 2017. Since then, this proportion has fallen to 7.3% in the year ending March 2024 (15,203). See table FIRE0901 for more information.

Figure 6.1: Number of medical incidents, England, year ending March 2011 to year ending March 2024

Source: FIRE0901

When looking at the specific sub-categories of medical incidents from the IRS (excluding ‘other’), in the year ending March 2024, ‘breathing difficulties/impairment/respiratory arrest’ accounted for the highest proportion of incidents (18%, 2,794 incidents), followed by ‘chest pain/cardiac arrest/heart condition’ (13%, 2,045 incidents). See FIRE0902 for further detail.

6.2 Fatalities in medical incidents

Details of fatalities and non-fatal casualties in medical incidents are completed if the FRS had an active involvement, for example ‘touched’ the fatality or non-fatal casualty.

There were 189 fatalities in medical incidents in the year ending March 2011. This increased by over 16 times to 3,104 in the year ending March 2017, but fell by 50% to 1,555 in the year ending March 2018. The rise and fall of this figure around this time was likely due to the EMR trials beginning in 2015 and ending 2017. Since then, the number of fatalities has fluctuated. In the latest year, there were 551 fatalities. See FIRE0904c for further detail.

Similarly, the fatality rate peaked in year ending March 2017 (67.8 per 1,000 incidents), in line with implementation of the EMR trials, before decreasing to levels seen before the trials. Since year ending March 2020 (15.9 fatalities per 1,000 incidents), there were 3 successive year-on-year increases to 36.2 fatalities per 1,000 incidents.

In the year ending March 2024, ‘unable to resuscitate, confirmed dead at scene’ accounted for 61% of all fatalities at medical incidents and ‘thought to be already dead’ accounted for 33%. These have been the 2 most common circumstances of fatalities since comparable data became available in year ending March 2013 (see FIRE0904c for further detail).

6.3 Medical incidents per 100,000 people

The number of medical incidents attended by FRSs per 100,000 people was on a slow upward trend from when the data was first collected in the year ending March 2010 until the year ending March 2015. During the 2 years of EMR trials, the rate increased to a peak of 83, before declining.

However, from the year ending March 2018 to 2021, medical incidents per 100,000 people steadily decreased. This pattern can be attributed to the medical co-responding pilot trials beginning in 2015 and ending in 2017.

In the year ending March 2024, FRSs attended 26.4 medical incidents per 100,000 people in England. This compared with a rate of 29.6 in the previous year and a rate of 25.4 in year ending March 2014 (see FIRE0903 for further detail).

When the rate of medical incidents per 100,000 people is analysed by FRS (before the year ending March 2018, Hampshire FRS did not record medical co-responding incidents in the IRS. They are currently undertaking a project to upload this data for the year ending March 2018 to the year ending March 2021), Humberside had the highest rate at (275.3), followed by Gloucestershire (118.9) and Devon and Somerset (108). The FRS that attended the fewest medical incidents per 100,000 people (excluding Isles of Scilly as they had none in the year ending March 2024) was Berkshire, with a rate of NA (see FIRE0903 for further detail).

7. Flooding and rescue or evacuation from water

The IRS records FRS attendance at ‘Flooding’ and ‘Rescue or evacuation from water’ incidents. This data was first collected for the year ending March 2010 when the online IRS was introduced.

Flooding incidents include those caused by:

• burst water mains
• flooding in open ground
• weather-related incidents, such as flash flooding

The types of incidents recorded in the IRS range from those where no action was required, to pumping out or making safe and evacuation. In instances where a flood affects more than one property, FRSs record an incident for each property they visit. In extreme circumstances, however, it is difficult for FRSs to give an accurate recording of each incident attended as they may have to move rapidly from 1 property to another when assisting with a flood.

Rescues or evacuations cover a wide range of circumstances from those where people are rescued from a swimming pool, river, lake, or the sea, to being in a vehicle surrounded by water.

Key results

In the year ending March 2024, there were:

• 17,797 flooding incidents, virtually unchanged compared with the previous year, an increase of 33% compared with 5 years ago, and an increase of 23% compared with 10 years ago
• 2,411 rescue or evacuation from water incidents, an increase of 73% compared with the previous year, an increase of 136% compared with 5 years ago, and an increase of 73% compared with 10 years ago
• 200 fatalities in flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents, the highest number on record, a 61% increase on the previous year (124), 98% increase on 5 years ago (101) and 127% increase on 10 years ago (88)

7.1 Flooding and rescue or evacuation from water overview

The number of flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents has fluctuated since data became available in year ending March 2010, with a notable low point in year ending March 2012 (12,560 incidents). As shown in figure 7.1, the fluctuation in the number of incidents generally aligns with the annual changes in rainfall. In the year ending March 2024, there were 20,208 flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents, of which 17,797 (88%) and 2,411 (12%) incidents were rescue or evacuation from water incidents. Flooding incidents were virtually unchanged, compared to the previous year, which was the highest number on record. However, rescue or evacuation from water incidents increased to the highest number on record, and saw a 73% increase compared to the previous year. The rate of fatalities per 1,000 incidents in rescue or evacuation from water incidents was 78.4, a 6.6% decrease compared to the previous year (83.9), 24% compared to 5 years ago (92.1) and 40% compared to 10 years ago (55.9).

Figure 7.1: Rainfall (mm) and the number of flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents, England, year ending March 2011 to year ending March 2024

Source: FIRE0901 and the Met Office

7.2 Flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents per 100,000 people

Similarly to the number of incidents, the rate of flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents attended per 100,000 people in England has fluctuated since the data was first collected in year ending March 2010.

In year ending March 2024, FRSs attended 35.0 flooding incidents per 100,000 people in England. At an FRS level, Greater London attended the most flooding incidents per 100,000 people with a rate of 90.9, excluding Isles of Scilly as the number of incidents were very low. West Yorkshire attended the fewest with a rate of 6.8.

Figure 7.2 Flooding and rescue or evacuation from water incidents per 100,000 people by FRSs, year ending March 2024

8. Summary of changes over time

Table 8.1: Number of non-fire incidents, comparing the year ending March 2024 with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Non-fire incident type	Year ending March 2024	Year ending March 2023	1-year change	Year ending March 2019	5-year change	Year ending March 2014	10-year change
Total	207,448	199,284	4.1%	162,389	28%	131,418	58%
Collaborating incidents	67,897	63,683	6.6%	41,635	63%	20,460	232%
Of which, effecting entry/exit	36,603	33,392	9.6%	24,904	47%	15,130	142%
Of which, assist other agencies	28,181	27,463	2.6%	14,816	90%	4,218	568%
Of which, suicide (including attempts)	3,113	2,828	10%	1,915	63%	1,112	180%
Road Traffic Collision	31,860	31,193	2.1%	31,119	2.4%	28,121	13%
Flooding and rescue or evacuation from water	20,208	19,231	5.1%	14,391	40%	15,883	27%
Of which, flooding	17,797	17,837	-0.2%	13,370	33%	14,486	23%
Of which, rescue or evacuation from water	2,411	1,394	73%	1,021	136%	1,397	73%
Medical incidents	15,203	16,905	-10%	19,913	-24%	13,655	11%
No action (not false alarm)	14,311	12,834	12%	8,157	75%	5,963	140%
Lift release	12,546	12,560	-0.1%	11,514	9.0%	11,194	12%
False alarms	9,785	9,104	7.5%	7,272	35%	5,653	73%
Other	35,638	33,774	5.5%	28,388	26%	30,489	17%

Source: FIRE0901

Notes:

1. False alarms - contains the ‘Malicious False Alarm’ and ‘Good Intent False Alarm’ non-fire categories.
2. There are 12 incident types included in the ‘Other’ category. Other includes the following incident types: removal of objects from people, animal assistance incidents, other rescue / release of persons, making safe (not RTC), hazardous materials incident, advice only, spills and leaks (not RTC), advice only, other transport incident, evacuation (no fire), stand by, water provision.

Table 8.2: Rate of fatalities per 1,000 non-fire incidents and percentage change, England, comparing the year ending March 2024 with 1, 5 and 10 years previously

Non-fire incident type	Year ending March 2024	Year ending March 2023	1-year change	Year ending March 2019	5-year change	Year ending March 2014	10-year change
Total	22.7	20.4	11%	15.9	43%	12.9	76%
Assist other agencies	42.0	37.0	14%	33.1	27%	43.4	-3.2%
Effecting entry/exit	30.0	23.6	27%	15.9	89%	4.3	598%
Road Traffic Collision	21.2	21.1	0.5%	21.0	1.0%	24.6	-14%
Medical incidents	36.2	36.9	-1.9%	16.8	115%	15.2	138%
Suicide (including attempts)	129.5	126.2	2.6%	139.9	-7.4%	188.8	-31%
Rescue or evacuation from water	78.4	83.9	-6.6%	92.1	-15%	62.3	26%

Source: FIRE0904b

Notes:

1. Rates for ‘other’ are not meaningful because of the wide variety of incident types included within it, therefore, are excluded from this summary table.

If you have any comments, suggestions, or enquiries, please contact the team via email using [email protected].

9. Further information

This release contains statistics about non-fire incidents attended by FRSs (FRSs) in England. The statistics are sourced from the Home Office’s online Incident Recording System (IRS). This system allows FRSs to complete an incident form for every incident attended, be it a fire, a false alarm, or a non-fire incident (also known as a Special Service incident). The online IRS was introduced in April 2009. Previously, paper forms were submitted by FRSs and an element of sampling was involved in the data compilation process.

Fire and rescue incident statistics and other Home Office statistical releases are available via the Statistics at Home Office pages on the GOV.UK website.

Data tables linked to this release and all other fire statistics releases can be found on the Home Office’s Fire statistics data tables page.

Guidance for using these statistics and other fire statistics outputs, including a quality report, is available on the fire statistics guidance page.

The information published in this release is kept under review, taking into account the needs of users and burdens on suppliers and producers, in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The Office for Statistics Regulation recently carried out a compliance check of the Home Office’s fire and rescue incident statistics against the Code of Practice and the results can be found in a letter to the Home Office’s Head of Profession published on the OSR website.

If you have any comments, suggestions, or enquiries, please contact the team via email using [email protected] or via the user feedback form on the fire statistics collection page.

9.1 Revisions

The IRS is a continually updated database, with FRSs adding incidents daily. The figures in this release refer to records of incidents that occurred up to and including 31 March 2024. This includes incident records that were submitted to the IRS by 27 August 2024, when a snapshot of the database was taken for the purpose of analysis. As a snapshot of the dataset was taken on 27 August 2024, the statistics published may not match those held locally by FRSs and revisions may occur in the future.

9.2 Duty to collaborate

The Policing and Crime Act 2017 introduced a new statutory duty on the 3 emergency services to consider opportunities to collaborate and to give effect to collaboration proposals where it would be in the interests of their efficiency or effectiveness. The act received Royal Assent on 31 January 2017.

9.3 Other related publications

Home Office publish 4 other statistical releases covering FRSs.

These include:

• Fire and rescue incident statistics, England: provides statistics on trends in fires, casualties, false alarms, and non-fire incidents attended by FRSs in England, updated quarterly
• Detailed analysis of fires attended and response times attended by FRSs in England: focuses on fires and response times to fires attended by FRSs across England, fire-related fatalities and non-fatal casualties in those fires; including analyses of the causes of fires and smoke alarms ownership and operation
• Fire and rescue workforce and pensions statistics: focuses on total workforce numbers, workforce diversity and information regarding leavers and joiners; covers both pension fund income and expenditure and firefighters’ pension schemes membership; and includes information on incidents involving attacks on firefighters
• Fire prevention and protection statistics, England: focuses on trends in smoke alarm ownership, fire prevention and protection activities by FRSs

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government also publish statistical releases on fire, which includes:

• the English Housing Survey fire and fire safety report: fire and fire safety report focuses on the extent to which the existence of fire and fire safety features vary by household and dwelling type and this report focuses on whether people felt safe from fire in their homes by household and dwelling type

Fire statistics are published by the other UK nations.

Scottish fire statistics and Welsh fire statistics are published based on the IRS. Fire statistics for Northern Ireland are published by the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service using data from a system similar to the Incident Recording System, which means that they are not directly comparable to English, Welsh, and Scottish data.

Accredited official statistics status

Following the National Statistics designation review by the Office for Statistics Regulation the term “Accredited Official Statistics” was introduced to describe National Statistics in September 2023. This release was, formerly badged as “National Statistics” and should now be considered “Accredited Official Statistics”. National Statistics is the legal term set out in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 for “Accredited Official Statistics” that have been judged by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR)^{[footnote 1]}, to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics (“the Code”). This means these statistics meet the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value as set out in “the Code”. Further information about accredited official statistics can be found on the OSR’s website.

1. OSR are the regulatory arm of the UK Statistics Authority ↩