In the year ending March 2025, fire and rescue services in England rescued 2,958 people from primary fires and attended 4,112 fires where people evacuated. This page brings the UK’s fire evacuation statistics together in one place: official rescue and evacuation counts from MHCLG’s fire statistics (data table FIRE0511 and the detailed annual analysis of fires), household preparedness data from the English Housing Survey, and survey data on fire drills and assembly-point awareness in UK workplaces.

It’s written for anyone who needs citable numbers on how evacuations actually go — how many people get rescued, how many fires force an evacuation, whether workplaces are drilling, and what changed after Grenfell. Every figure is dated and sourced, and the official statistics are separated clearly from the survey data.

Key facts and figures

  • 2,958 people were rescued from primary fires in England in the year ending March 2025 — up 3.9% on the year before.
  • 4,112 primary fires attended in England involved an evacuation in the year ending March 2025.
  • 47% of UK workers surveyed could not locate their workplace fire assembly point.
  • 16% of UK workers surveyed had taken part in a workplace fire drill in the past year.
  • 44% of UK workers surveyed would not know what to do in the event of a fire at work.
  • 6 April 2026 is the date residential PEEPs became mandatory in England for high-rise residential buildings.
  • 93% of households in England had at least one working smoke alarm in 2024–25 — but 24% had never tested it.
  • 208 people died in dwelling fires in England in the year ending March 2025 — 77% of all fire fatalities.

All figures are the latest available as of July 2026, and this page is updated when new data is released — MHCLG publishes fire and rescue incident statistics quarterly, with the detailed annual analysis of fires (including rescues and evacuations) each August.

How many people are rescued from fires in the UK?

2,958 people were rescued from primary fires in England in the year ending March 2025, according to MHCLG’s fire statistics data table FIRE0511 — a 3.9% increase on the 2,848 people rescued the previous year.

“Primary fires” are the more serious incidents in the official statistics: fires in buildings, vehicles and outdoor structures, or any fire involving casualties, rescues, or five or more fire engines. A “rescue” in this dataset means fire and rescue service crews physically assisted someone from the incident — it doesn’t count the far larger number of people who evacuated themselves before or after crews arrived.

The rescue figure is one of the few measures in the national fire statistics that has risen recently, even though the number of fires has fallen over the long term. Since November 2025 the underlying data has been collected through the new Fire and Rescue Data Platform (FaRDaP), which replaced the older incident recording system and keeps the annual refresh path intact.

What about Wales and Scotland?

The FIRE0511 rescue series covers England only. Wales reports separately: Welsh fire and rescue services recorded 16 fire fatalities and 389 non-fatal fire casualties in 2024–25, and now rescue more people from special service incidents — flooding, road traffic collisions and similar emergencies — than from fires. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service publishes its own annual incident statistics covering rescues and casualties in Scotland.

How many fires involve an evacuation?

4,112 primary fires attended by fire and rescue services in England involved an evacuation in the year ending March 2025 — down 1.3% from 4,165 the year before, and broadly stable at around 4,000 incidents for two years running.

It’s worth being precise about what this measures. The figure counts fires attended by fire and rescue services where an evacuation of people took place at the incident. It does not capture the everyday evacuations that never appear in any national dataset: buildings cleared for alarm activations that turn out to be false, precautionary evacuations where the fire service isn’t called, or the thousands of planned fire drills held in workplaces, schools and public buildings every week. The true number of times people in the UK practise or perform an evacuation each year is far higher than any official statistic shows.

For fire wardens, the 4,112 figure is best read as the count of real, recorded emergency evacuations at fires — the situations the role exists for.

Are fire rescues and evacuations falling over time?

Yes — substantially. In the year ending March 2010, fire and rescue services in England recorded 4,367 rescues from primary fires and 9,263 fires involving an evacuation. By the year ending March 2025 those figures had fallen to 2,958 rescues (down around 32%) and 4,112 evacuation incidents (down around 56%).

The decline tracks the long-term fall in fires overall: better building standards, near-universal smoke alarm ownership, safer appliances and furnishings, and decades of prevention work by fire and rescue services. The recent picture is flatter — evacuation incidents have hovered around 4,000 for two years, and rescues actually rose 3.9% in the latest year — so the era of steep year-on-year falls appears to be over.

Measure Latest figure Data period Trend
People rescued from primary fires (England) 2,958 Year ending March 2025 Up 3.9% on the year; down ~32% from 4,367 in 2009/10
Primary fires involving an evacuation (England) 4,112 Year ending March 2025 Down 1.3% on the year; down ~56% from 9,263 in 2009/10
Workers unable to locate their fire assembly point 47% One-off survey (n=1,500) —
Workers who had a fire drill in the past year 16% One-off survey (n=1,500) —
Dwelling-fire fatalities (England) 208 Year ending March 2025 77% of all fire deaths
Households with at least one working smoke alarm (England) 93% 2024–25 Up from 92% the year before

Whether an evacuation succeeds also depends on the building holding back smoke long enough for people to get out — the compartmentation job that fire doors do. Our companion page on fire door statistics covers how often those doors fail inspection.

What do UK fire drill statistics show?

Only 16% of UK workers said they had taken part in a fire drill at their workplace in the past year, according to a survey of 1,500 UK adults by training provider Phoenix Health & Safety. There are no official national statistics on fire drills — no government body counts them — so this survey is the best available indicator of drill frequency in UK workplaces, and it should be read as a one-off provider survey rather than official data.

The legal backdrop makes that 16% figure striking. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the responsible person to establish appropriate procedures — explicitly including safety drills — for serious and imminent danger, and government workplace fire safety guidance says employers should carry out at least one fire drill per year and record the results. If the survey is even roughly representative, a large majority of UK workplaces are falling short of that baseline.

The same survey suggests the consequences: 44% of workers would not know what to do in the event of a fire at work, and only 24% would know which fire extinguisher to use on a given type of fire. Drills exist precisely to close that gap — an evacuation procedure that staff have never walked through is a document, not a plan. Running and reviewing drills is a core part of the fire marshal’s responsibilities.

How many workers know where their fire assembly point is?

47% of UK workers could not locate their workplace fire assembly point, in the same Phoenix Health & Safety survey of 1,500 UK adults — meaning barely half of the workforce knows where they are actually supposed to go when the alarm sounds.

For anyone running an evacuation, that number has a very practical consequence. Roll calls only work if people arrive at the right place; a missing colleague who is actually standing in the wrong car park can send a fire crew back into a building unnecessarily. It’s why assembly-point location features in induction briefings, signage checks and every drill debrief — and why guidance on how many fire marshals a workplace needs assumes wardens are covering defined areas with known assembly points, rather than improvising on the day.

The fix is cheap: a 30-second mention in every new-starter induction, assembly-point signage that matches the current site layout, and at least one drill a year so the route is walked, not just described.

Who needs help to evacuate? PEEPs and the Grenfell legacy

15 of the 37 disabled residents of Grenfell Tower — 41% — died in the June 2017 fire, in which 72 people lost their lives. The Grenfell Tower Inquiry found that most had no personal evacuation plan, and its recommendations drove the biggest change to UK evacuation policy in a generation.

That change is now law. Under the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025, Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) became mandatory in England on 6 April 2026 for residents with disabilities and impairments in high-rise residential buildings (over 18 metres or seven storeys). Responsible persons must offer person-centred fire risk assessments, agree what support each resident needs to evacuate, and share that information with the local fire and rescue service. Our companion page on high-rise fire statistics covers the wider building-safety data behind the reforms.

In workplaces, PEEPs are already an established expectation under the Fire Safety Order: anyone who cannot evacuate unaided — wheelchair users, people with sensory impairments, colleagues with temporary injuries — should have a written plan setting out their route, any equipment such as evacuation chairs, and who assists them. Fire wardens don’t write PEEPs, but they are usually the people who carry them out, which is why knowing who holds one is part of the pre-drill briefing in any well-run building.

How prepared are households to evacuate?

93% of households in England had at least one working smoke alarm in 2024–25, up from 92% a year earlier — but 24% of households with alarms had never tested them, according to the English Housing Survey. A smoke alarm is the single biggest factor in evacuation success at home, because it buys the minutes that make escape possible; an untested alarm may not buy anything at all.

The stakes are visible in the casualty data. There were 208 dwelling-fire fatalities in England in the year ending March 2025 — 77% of all fire deaths — alongside 4,676 non-fatal dwelling-fire casualties, according to MHCLG’s detailed analysis of fires. People are far more likely to die in a fire at home than anywhere else, largely because homes have no fire wardens, no drills and no roll calls: detection and a practised escape route are all a household has.

Fire and rescue services recommend every household agree an escape plan — the domestic equivalent of the workplace drill: know two ways out, keep keys where everyone can find them, and pick a meeting point outside.

Frequently asked questions

How often should you have a fire drill at work in the UK?

Government workplace fire safety guidance says you should carry out at least one fire drill per year and record the results, and the Fire Safety Order requires evacuation procedures — including safety drills — as part of your fire safety arrangements. Higher-risk premises, shift-based workplaces and buildings with frequent staff turnover generally drill more often. Survey data suggests only 16% of UK workers actually had a drill in the past year.

How many people are rescued from fires in England each year?

2,958 people were rescued from primary fires in England in the year ending March 2025, up 3.9% on the 2,848 rescued the year before (MHCLG fire statistics, table FIRE0511).

How many people are evacuated in fires in the UK?

There were 4,112 primary fires involving an evacuation in England in the year ending March 2025. Official statistics count evacuation incidents rather than the number of individuals evacuated, and they exclude false-alarm evacuations and drills — so the total number of people who evacuate buildings each year is far higher.

What percentage of workers know where their fire assembly point is?

Only around half — 47% of UK workers could not locate their workplace fire assembly point in a Phoenix Health & Safety survey of 1,500 UK adults.

What is a PEEP and when did they become mandatory?

A Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) is a written plan for evacuating someone who cannot get out unaided. Residential PEEPs became mandatory in England on 6 April 2026 for disabled and impaired residents of high-rise residential buildings over 18 metres or seven storeys. In workplaces, PEEPs are an established expectation under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

Where do UK fire evacuation statistics come from?

The core data is MHCLG’s fire statistics for England — data table FIRE0511 (rescues and evacuations from primary fires) and the detailed analysis of fires, refreshed annually, plus quarterly incident statistics. Wales and Scotland publish separate statistics, and drill and assembly-point figures come from workplace surveys because no official body counts fire drills.

If you’re responsible for evacuation where you work, the numbers on this page are the argument for taking the role seriously: rescues are rising, most workplaces aren’t drilling, and nearly half of workers don’t know where to assemble. Our Fire Warden Training course covers evacuation procedure, sweeps, assembly-point management and PEEPs — £18 per learner, RoSPA approved and CPD accredited, 60 to 90 minutes online, with an instant certificate on passing and bulk discounts from 10 delegates.

Sources & references

Evacuation is the fire warden’s core duty — get certified with accredited, workplace-ready training.

Explore the Fire Warden Training course →
Mark McShane
Mark McShane
Health & Safety Training Specialist, Online CPD Academy

Mark writes about workplace health & safety, fire safety and accredited online training for Fire Warden Training, part of Online CPD Academy.