Fire Service Response Time Statistics UK: How Long Does the Fire Brigade Take to Arrive? (2025 Data)

The average fire and rescue response to a primary fire in England reached 9 minutes 23 seconds in the rolling year ending September 2025 — near a record high and almost three minutes slower than the 6 minutes 11 seconds recorded in 1994-95. This page pulls the UK’s fire service response-time statistics together in one place: the headline average, the three components that make it up (call handling, crew turnout and drive time), how it varies between urban and rural areas, and why it has drifted upwards for three decades. The core data comes from MHCLG’s detailed analysis of fires and response times in England, the quarterly fire and rescue incident statistics, the FIRE1001 response-times data tables, and the England fire workforce statistics.

It’s written for anyone who needs citable, up-to-date numbers on how fast the fire brigade actually arrives — journalists writing “postcode lottery” response stories, fire risk assessors justifying an evacuation or suppression strategy, councillors and scrutiny leads, insurers and facilities-management teams. Every figure is dated and sourced, and where a related topic has its own page in our statistics cluster we carry a single headline and link out rather than duplicate it.

Key facts and figures

• 9m 06s was the average response to primary fires in England in the year ending March 2025 — up from 8m 37s a decade earlier.
• 9m 23s was the rolling average to primary fires in the year ending September 2025, 20 seconds slower than a year before.
• 6m 11s was the average response back in 1994-95 — response is now roughly three minutes slower over three decades.
• 68% of the total response time is drive time (6m 11s), with call handling (1m 24s) and crew turnout (1m 30s) making up the rest.
• 8m 06s was the average response to dwelling (home) fires in the year ending March 2025 — faster than the all-fires average.
• 10m 57s was the average response in predominantly rural fire authorities, versus 7m 46s in predominantly urban ones — a gap of over three minutes.
• 69% of primary fires were reached within 10 minutes in the year ending March 2025, down 0.7 percentage points on the year.
• 30,601 full-time-equivalent firefighters remained in England at March 2025 — down 14% over the decade, a key driver of slower response.

All figures are the latest available as of July 2026. This page is updated when new data is released — MHCLG publishes the full component and urban–rural breakdown once a year, each August (the year ending March 2025 release landed on 14 August 2025), with headline response figures refreshed quarterly through the fire and rescue incident statistics (the year ending September 2025 release was published on 29 January 2026).

What is the average fire brigade response time in the UK?

The average total response time to a primary fire in England was 9 minutes 6 seconds in the year ending March 2025, according to MHCLG’s detailed analysis of fires and response times. On a rolling quarterly basis the figure had crept up further to 9 minutes 23 seconds by the year ending September 2025 — 20 seconds slower than the same period a year earlier, and close to the highest since comparable records began.

“Response time” here has a precise official meaning: it is the interval from the moment the emergency call is answered to the moment the first fire engine arrives at the scene. It covers three distinct stages — handling the 999 call, the crew turning out from the station, and the drive to the incident — which we break down in the next section. “Primary fires” are the more serious fires the statistics track most closely: fires in buildings, vehicles and other property, or any fire involving casualties, rescues or five or more appliances.

Different fire types carry different averages. Dwelling (home) fires are reached fastest because they are concentrated where cover is densest, while secondary fires — smaller outdoor fires such as grassland, refuse and derelict-building fires — are reached more slowly:

By the year ending September 2025 the rolling dwelling-fire average had itself edged up to 8 minutes 13 seconds, 8 seconds slower year-on-year, while secondary fires reached 9 minutes 55 seconds — up 39 seconds on the year, the fastest-deteriorating category. The direction of travel is consistent across every fire type: slower.

What are the three parts of a fire service response time?

The 9-minute average splits into three stages — call handling of about 1 minute 24 seconds, crew turnout of about 1 minute 30 seconds, and drive time of about 6 minutes 11 seconds, based on MHCLG’s year ending March 2025 breakdown. Drive time is by far the largest slice at roughly 68% of the total, which is why the distance between the incident and the nearest available appliance matters more than any other single factor.

• Call handling (~1m 24s, 15%) — the time from the fire control room answering the 999 call to mobilising an appliance, including gathering the address and details.
• Crew turnout (~1m 30s, 17%) — the time from mobilisation to the appliance leaving the station, which depends heavily on whether the station is crewed by wholetime firefighters on site or on-call firefighters travelling in from home or work.
• Drive time (~6m 11s, 68%) — the time spent travelling from the station to the scene, driven by geography, station density, traffic and road type.

Crucially, every stage has slowed. Over the decade to March 2025 the average response to primary fires rose by 29 seconds overall, and drive time alone rose by 42 seconds — meaning the growing distance to incidents is the single biggest contributor to the long-run deterioration, partly offset by small gains elsewhere. Turnout differences also explain most of the urban–rural gap, as the next sections show.

Why are fire service response times getting slower?

Response times have deteriorated by nearly three minutes since 1994-95, when the average was 6 minutes 11 seconds, and by 29 seconds in the decade to March 2025 alone. The upward drift is long-run and structural rather than a one-year blip — the Fire Brigades Union and the National Preparedness Commission have both highlighted that times are now at or near their highest in more than a decade, using the same MHCLG data.

Several factors combine. The clearest is drive time: as station numbers and appliance availability have tightened, the nearest available engine is on average further from the incident, adding 42 seconds of drive time over the decade. Behind that sits the workforce. The number of firefighters in England fell 14% over the decade to 30,601 full-time-equivalents at March 2025, down from 35,699 in March 2015 — a reduction that MHCLG and sector bodies link directly to slower turnout and thinner cover. That workforce figure is used here purely as a causal driver; the full staffing, diversity and pay picture lives on our fire and rescue service statistics page.

The on-call model is the pinch point. On-call (retained) firefighter numbers fell 26% over the decade, against a 9.4% fall in wholetime roles — and because on-call crews must travel to the station before they can even set off, thinner on-call cover lengthens turnout most sharply in the rural areas that depend on it. The result is a service attending a rising workload with fewer people, which shows up first and most visibly in the clock.

Are fire response times slower in rural areas than cities?

Yes — predominantly rural fire and rescue authorities averaged 10 minutes 57 seconds to primary fires in the year ending March 2025, against 7 minutes 46 seconds in predominantly urban ones, a gap of more than three minutes. This urban–rural divide is the sharpest and most persistent inequality in the response-time data, and it has held at roughly two to four minutes every single year since this breakdown began in the year ending March 2011.

Most of the gap comes from crew turnout, not distance alone. Turnout averaged just 1 minute 2 seconds in predominantly urban authorities but 2 minutes 23 seconds in predominantly rural ones — well over double — because rural stations rely on on-call firefighters who have to reach the station before the appliance can move, whereas urban stations are more likely to be wholetime and crewed on site around the clock.

This is the “postcode lottery” that recurs in press coverage: where you live materially changes how quickly a fire engine reaches you. The Fire Brigades Union has argued that the absence of a single national response-time standard — England has had no statutory target since national standards were withdrawn in 2004 — allows this variation to persist unchecked, with each service setting its own local performance measures instead.

How often does the fire brigade arrive within 10 minutes?

Only 69% of all primary fires in England were reached within 10 minutes in the year ending March 2025, down 0.7 percentage points on the previous year, according to MHCLG. In other words, nearly one in three primary fires now waits longer than ten minutes for the first appliance — a meaningful share when fire growth is measured in seconds.

Home fires fare a little better: 79% of dwelling fires were reached within 10 minutes in the same year, also down 0.7 percentage points on the year. The consistency of that decline across both measures underlines that this is a system-wide trend rather than noise. For context on the scale of the workload behind these times, fire and rescue services attended 142,494 fires in England in the year ending March 2025, up 2.5% on the previous year — a rising caseload spread across a shrinking workforce.

These figures are national averages; individual services publish their own local response standards and performance against them, which is where the urban–rural variation above becomes visible service by service. The wider question of how much work the service is handling overall — total incidents, false alarms and non-fire call-outs — sits on our fire and rescue service statistics page rather than here.

What slower response times mean for workplace fire safety

The practical takeaway for employers is direct. If the average primary-fire response is now over nine minutes — and longer still in rural areas or beyond the 10-minute mark for nearly a third of fires — then the first several minutes of any fire are, in almost every case, minutes when no professional firefighter is yet on scene. What happens in that window is decided entirely by the people already in the building.

That is precisely the gap a trained fire warden fills. Raising the alarm without delay, starting a calm and complete evacuation, sweeping rooms, managing the assembly point and — where safe and appropriate — tackling a small fire in its first moments with the right extinguisher can all happen before the brigade arrives. A nine-minute average response is not a reason to lean less on your own arrangements; it is the clearest possible reason to lean more. Evacuation timing and behaviour are covered in detail on our fire evacuation statistics page.

Frequently asked questions

What is the average fire brigade response time in the UK?

In England, the average total response to a primary fire was 9 minutes 6 seconds in the year ending March 2025, rising to 9 minutes 23 seconds on a rolling basis in the year ending September 2025. That is the time from the 999 call being answered to the first fire engine arriving.

How long does the fire brigade take to arrive at a house fire?

The average response to a dwelling (home) fire in England was 8 minutes 6 seconds in the year ending March 2025 — faster than the all-fires average because homes are concentrated where cover is densest. On a rolling basis it had risen to 8 minutes 13 seconds by the year ending September 2025.

Why are fire service response times getting slower?

Response is nearly three minutes slower than in 1994-95 and 29 seconds slower over the decade to March 2025. The biggest single factor is drive time, which rose 42 seconds over the decade as the nearest available appliance sits further from incidents, alongside a 14% fall in firefighter numbers and a 26% fall in on-call crews that lengthens turnout.

Are fire response times slower in rural areas than cities?

Yes. Predominantly rural fire authorities averaged 10 minutes 57 seconds to primary fires in the year ending March 2025, against 7 minutes 46 seconds in predominantly urban ones — a gap of over three minutes that has held at two to four minutes every year since records began in 2011. Most of the difference is crew turnout, because rural areas rely on on-call firefighters.

Is there a legal target for fire brigade response times in England?

No. England has had no national statutory response-time standard since the previous targets were withdrawn in 2004. Each fire and rescue service now sets its own local response standards, which is one reason the Fire Brigades Union and others have called for national standards to be reinstated.

Where do UK fire service response-time statistics come from?

The core data is MHCLG’s detailed analysis of fires and response times in England, published each August, plus the quarterly fire and rescue incident statistics and the FIRE1001 response-times data tables. Workforce figures come from the England fire workforce and pensions statistics.

If you’re responsible for fire safety at work, these numbers set the context: a nine-minute-plus average response means the first minutes of a fire are yours to manage. Our Fire Warden Training course covers evacuation, room sweeps, assembly-point management and first-response firefighting — £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.

Related guides

• Fire and Rescue Service Statistics UK: Incidents, Stations & Staffing
• Fire Evacuation Statistics UK: Rescues, Drills & Behaviour Data
• High-Rise Fire Statistics UK: Incidents, Cladding & Evacuation
• Fire Door Statistics UK: Inspection, Failure & Compliance Data
• Fire marshal responsibilities: the complete UK duties list

Sources & references

• MHCLG — Detailed analysis of fires and response times to fires, England, April 2024 to March 2025
• MHCLG — Fire and rescue incident statistics, England, year ending September 2025
• MHCLG — Fire incidents response times collection (FIRE1001 data tables)
• MHCLG / Home Office — Fire and rescue workforce and pensions statistics, England, year ending March 2025
• Fire Brigades Union — Static response times highlight need for national standards (Oct/Nov 2024)
• National Preparedness Commission — Fire brigade response times across England highest in 10 years

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.