In the 2021 joint survey by four UK fire trade associations — the Fire Industry Association (FIA), IFEDA, the British Fire Consortium and the UK Fire Association — 93% of fires tackled with a portable fire extinguisher were successfully put out. This page brings the UK’s fire extinguisher statistics together in one place: effectiveness data from that periodic trade survey, official Home Office analysis of how often extinguishers are used at fires attended by fire and rescue services in England, the BAFE/IFEDA effectiveness report, and current MHCLG fire statistics for freshness context.

It’s written for anyone who needs citable numbers on how well portable fire extinguishers work — how often they put a fire out, whether users are trained, and how often the fire service still turns out. Every figure is dated and sourced, and the periodic survey data is separated clearly from the official government statistics.

Key facts and figures

  • 93% of fires tackled with a portable fire extinguisher were successfully put out in the 2021 trade-association survey — up from 80% in 2003.
  • 52% of the people who used an extinguisher in the 2021 survey had actually received training on how to use one.
  • 7% of England’s 68,757 primary fires in the year ending March 2020 involved the public using a fire extinguisher — 4,828 fires (Home Office IRS analysis).
  • 73% of cases in the 2021 survey still saw the fire and rescue service called out, versus 75% in 2003.
  • £840m+ a year is the estimated saving to the UK economy from portable fire extinguisher use (trade-association survey).
  • 93% of the time the correct type of extinguisher was chosen in 2021, despite the low training rate.
  • 25% of surveyed fires in 2021 were electrical, up from 19% in 2008, while oil/flammable-liquid fires fell from 26% to 8%.
  • 177,219 fires were attended by fire and rescue services in England in the year ending September 2025 (MHCLG, freshness anchor).

All figures are the latest available as of July 2026. The headline 93% success rate and 52% training figures come from a periodic trade survey last run in 2021 (published February 2022) and are labelled throughout as “2021 survey” — they will age until the associations re-run it. This page is refreshed with each new MHCLG quarterly release (currently year ending September 2025, published 29 January 2026) and re-checked against any new survey.

How effective are fire extinguishers in the UK?

93% of fires tackled with a portable fire extinguisher were successfully extinguished in 2021, according to the joint survey run by the FIA, IFEDA, the British Fire Consortium and the UK Fire Association and published in February 2022 — up from 80% in the associations’ first survey in 2003.

The survey is the single most-cited source in this field, so it is worth being precise about what it is. It is a periodic survey conducted by industry bodies (run in 2003, 2008 and 2021, with no fixed cadence), not an official government statistic. It measures the outcome of fires where someone chose to fight the fire with a portable extinguisher and reported it; it does not capture fires where an extinguisher was tried and abandoned without being logged. Read as an industry effectiveness measure, though, it is a strong result.

The associations also estimate that extinguisher use prevented 1,629 injuries and saved 24 lives — figures based on the 2003 dataset, so best treated as an order-of-magnitude estimate rather than a current annual count.

What percentage of fires are put out with a fire extinguisher?

The public used a fire extinguisher at 7% of the primary fires attended by fire and rescue services in England in the year ending March 2020 — 4,828 of the 68,757 primary fires — according to an ad-hoc Home Office analysis of the Incident Recording System (IRS). This is the official counterweight to the trade survey: it shows how common extinguisher use is across all attended fires, not just how well it works when tried.

The two numbers answer different questions. The 7% figure is the share of attended primary fires where an extinguisher was used at all; the 93% figure is the success rate within the smaller pool of fires people actively fought with a portable extinguisher and reported. Both matter: extinguishers are reached for in a minority of fires, but when they are used they usually work.

The Home Office extract is a one-off (ad-hoc) analysis for the year ending March 2020, not a repeating annual series, so it does not refresh in step with the quarterly headline statistics. It remains the best official read on how often extinguishers feature at attended fires in England.

Measure Figure Data period Source type
Fires successfully put out with a portable extinguisher 93% 2021 survey Periodic trade survey (2003 / 2008 / 2021)
Users who had received training 52% 2021 survey Periodic trade survey
Correct extinguisher type chosen 93% 2021 survey Periodic trade survey
Fire and rescue service still called out 73% 2021 survey (75% in 2003) Periodic trade survey
Primary fires where the public used an extinguisher (England) 7% (4,828 of 68,757) Year ending March 2020 Official ad-hoc IRS analysis
Estimated annual saving to the UK economy £840m+ 2021 survey Periodic trade survey

Do you need training to use a fire extinguisher?

Only 52% of the people who used a fire extinguisher in the 2021 survey had received any training in how to use one — meaning nearly half were operating firefighting equipment for the first time in a genuine emergency. For a fire-warden site this is the central number: fire wardens (also called fire marshals) are precisely the people an employer trains to use first-aid firefighting equipment.

The counterintuitive finding is that outcomes held up anyway: the correct type of extinguisher was chosen 93% of the time and 93% of fires were put out, despite barely half of users being trained. That is not evidence that training does not matter. It reflects a survivorship effect — these are the fires people felt confident enough to tackle and then reported — and says nothing about fires where an untrained person reached for a water extinguisher on an electrical or cooking-oil fire and made things worse.

The legal backdrop reinforces the point. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the responsible person to ensure staff who may need to use firefighting equipment are trained to do so. Training covers not just how to operate an extinguisher but the more important judgement of whether to fight a fire at all — evacuation always comes first, and an extinguisher is only for a small fire in its early stages with a clear escape route behind you. Our companion page on fire evacuation statistics shows how few workers can even find their assembly point.

How often is the fire service still called after an extinguisher is used?

The fire and rescue service was still called out in 73% of cases in the 2021 survey, barely changed from 75% in 2003. Using an extinguisher successfully does not mean standing down the emergency response — in roughly three-quarters of cases the fire service was summoned as well.

This is exactly the behaviour fire safety guidance asks for. A portable extinguisher can knock down a small fire, but it cannot confirm the fire is fully out, deal with hidden spread inside a wall cavity or ceiling void, or manage the risk of re-ignition. Calling the fire service even when you believe the fire is out is the correct default, and the survey suggests most people do it — which is part of why the Home Office was able to measure extinguisher use across attended incidents at all.

What types of fire are tackled with extinguishers?

Electrical fires rose to 25% of surveyed fires in 2021, up from 19% in 2008, while oil and flammable-liquid fires fell sharply from 26% of surveyed fires in 2008 to 8% in 2021. The changing mix reflects how workplaces and homes have changed — more electrical and electronic equipment, and less open handling of flammable liquids.

In the 2021 survey the leading immediate causes of the fires tackled were electricity, hot work and battery-operated equipment, each accounting for around 19% of cases — with battery fires now prominent enough to feature as a distinct category, where they barely registered before. Vehicle fires fell from 22% of surveyed fires in 2008 to 18% in 2021.

The practical lesson is that the risk profile has shifted towards electrical and battery-related ignition. The detailed question of ignition causes and detection sits with fire safety awareness rather than this equipment-focused page — our sister site covers fire causes and detection in its fire safety awareness training. Here the point is narrower: the fires people fight with extinguishers are increasingly electrical, which makes choosing the right extinguisher type — and knowing not to use water on electrical fires — more important, not less.

What do fire extinguishers save the UK economy?

Portable fire extinguishers are estimated to save the UK economy over £840 million a year, according to the trade-association survey — the value of property, business continuity and downstream losses avoided when a small fire is stopped before it grows. Corroborating coverage of the same survey also puts the saving to fire and rescue services alone at around £8.6 million a year.

These are modelled industry estimates, not audited government figures, so they carry the usual caveats of any economic-benefit calculation. But the direction is unsurprising: catching a fire in its first minute, when a single extinguisher can still cope, avoids a far larger loss later — the economic case behind the safety case for keeping extinguishers serviced and staff trained.

Should homes have fire extinguishers too?

The BAFE/IFEDA effectiveness report by David Wales (published 30 March 2021) argues that the case for portable extinguishers is strongest in domestic settings — particularly houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and higher-risk residential buildings — where fire and rescue service response times have been lengthening. The report re-frames extinguishers not as a workplace-only tool but as a potentially life-saving first response in the home, where most fire deaths occur.

The report stops short of recommending mandatory domestic extinguishers, but it makes the effectiveness case that a correctly used extinguisher buys time in exactly the settings where time is scarcest. For the residential building-safety data behind that concern, see our high-rise fire statistics page.

How does this fit the wider UK fire picture?

Fire and rescue services in England attended 177,219 fires in the year ending September 2025, of which 66,866 were primary fires, with 273 fire-related fatalities, according to MHCLG’s quarterly fire and rescue incident statistics (published 29 January 2026). These totals are the freshness anchor for this page rather than its subject: they show the scale of the fire problem into which extinguisher use fits, and they update every quarter, whereas the extinguisher-specific survey and IRS analysis do not.

Read together, extinguishers are a useful but partial tool: reached for in a minority of attended fires, effective in the large majority of the fires people do fight, and best understood as the first-response layer beneath the fire and rescue service rather than a replacement for it. For the wider service workload and response-time data, see our fire and rescue service statistics page. Sector-level fire counts, prosecutions and enforcement outcomes are covered on our sister site’s fire marshal training resources rather than here.

Frequently asked questions

How effective are fire extinguishers in the UK?

In the 2021 joint survey by the FIA, IFEDA, the British Fire Consortium and the UK Fire Association, 93% of fires tackled with a portable fire extinguisher were successfully put out — up from 80% in 2003. That is an industry survey rather than an official statistic, and it measures the success rate within fires that people chose to fight with an extinguisher and reported.

What percentage of fires are put out with a fire extinguisher?

Official Home Office analysis found the public used a fire extinguisher at 7% of the primary fires attended by fire and rescue services in England in the year ending March 2020 — 4,828 of 68,757 primary fires. The 93% survey figure is the success rate when an extinguisher is used; the 7% figure is how often one is used at all.

Do you need training to use a fire extinguisher?

Legally, employers must ensure staff who may need to use firefighting equipment are trained, under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. In practice only 52% of the people who used an extinguisher in the 2021 survey had received any training — so nearly half were untrained. Training also teaches the more important judgement of whether to fight a fire at all, with evacuation always taking priority.

How often do fire and rescue services still attend after an extinguisher is used?

In 73% of cases in the 2021 survey the fire and rescue service was still called out, almost unchanged from 75% in 2003. Calling the fire service even when you think a fire is out is the correct default, because an extinguisher cannot confirm the fire is fully extinguished or deal with hidden spread and re-ignition.

Where do UK fire extinguisher statistics come from?

The headline effectiveness figures come from the periodic joint survey by the FIA, IFEDA, the British Fire Consortium and the UK Fire Association (last run in 2021). Usage rates come from an ad-hoc Home Office analysis of the Incident Recording System for the year ending March 2020, and current fire totals come from MHCLG’s quarterly fire and rescue incident statistics.

If you’re responsible for fire safety where you work, these numbers are the argument for training the people who might reach for an extinguisher: they work in most cases, but nearly half of users have never been shown how. Our Fire Warden Training course covers extinguisher types, the choose-and-use decision, and when to fight a fire versus evacuate — £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

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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.