Official Statistics

Daily incident dataset guidance

Updated 23 August 2024

Applies to England

Publishing Incident Recording System data on the fire and rescue service at an incident level:

Frequency of release: Annual

First publication: 9 November 2017

Latest update: 25 July 2024

Forthcoming releases: Home Office statistics release calendar

Home Office responsible statistician: Helene Clark

Press enquiries: pressoffice@homeoffice.gov.uk

Telephone: 0300 123 3535

Public enquiries: firestatistics@homeoffice.gov.uk

1. Background

Data quality

Incident records in the Incident Recording System (IRS) are the responsibility of and quality assured by fire and rescue services (FRSs). The Home Office and FRSs work together to improve the data within the IRS and minimise any inconsistencies or errors. However, as the IRS was not designed with record level datasets in mind, a very small number of previously unidentified inconsistencies have been discovered (see project overview for further detail).

IRS incident records are a judgement call of the lead fire officer at the time of the incident. The quality of the information provided by fire and rescue services is variable and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed, especially at a record level, for instance some records involve estimation by those in attendance.

Dataset rationale

The Home Office regularly receive requests regarding the number of incidents/fires attended on certain days of the year, for example Fireworks Night, Christmas Day and Diwali. This dataset provides this information.

Dataset definition

The daily incidents dataset covers all incidents attended by FRSs. The Home Office only has jurisdiction for fire policy in England and therefore has published incident data for England only.

The data in this dataset is consistent with records that reached the IRS by 15 May 2024.

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2. Variable by variable - scene setting

Variable Name: FRS_TERRITORY
Variable Description: The FRS in which the incident took place
IRS Question: 1.6

The fire and rescue service (FRS) refers to the territory in which the incident took place, not necessarily the FRS which responded. Occasionally an FRS will respond to an incident “over the border”, because of this, users should be careful about making general comments about particular FRSs as some incidents may have been responded to by other FRSs. This dataset only covers incidents that took place in England.

Due to data protection issues we have merged Isles of Scilly data with Cornwall, as the number of incidents in Isle of Scilly is minimal (there were 331 between financial year 2010 to 2011 and financial year 2023 to 2024 in various types). Figures for Dorset and Wiltshire, who merged into one FRS on 1st April 2016, are presented merged.

Variable Name: E_CODE_TERRITORY
Variable Description: The E Code of the FRS
IRS Question: 1.6 (based on)

The standard National Statistics code (E Code) of the fire and rescue service (FRS) in FRS_TERRITORY. In this case the code for Cornwall has been used for the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly combined FRS.

Variable Name: FINANCIAL_YEAR
Variable Description: The financial year the incident took place
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

A financial year runs from 1 April to 31 March. Record level information is published from financial year 2010 to 2011 - although the IRS began in April 2009 there are a few minor issues with the financial year 2009 to 2010 records which mean that while statistics at higher levels are robust some of the incident level records are not of a sufficient quality to publish. Incidents are allocated to financial year depending on the time of the call, which is usually collected through automatic systems, so for example an incident where the call was made at 23:59 on 31 March 2010 but the incident was closed at 01:34 on 1 April 2010 would be allocated to financial year 2009 to 2010 not financial year 2010 to 2011.

Variable Name: CALENDAR_YEAR
Variable Description: The calendar year the incident took place
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

A calendar year runs from 1 January to 31 December. Record level information is published from financial year 2010 to 2011 - although the IRS began in April 2009 there are a few minor issues with the financial year 2009 to 2010 records which mean that while statistics at higher levels are robust some of the incident level records are not of a sufficient quality to publish. Incidents are allocated to calendar year depending on the time of the call, which is usually collected through automatic systems, so for example an incident where the call was made at 23:59 on 31 March 2010 but the incident was closed at 01:34 on 1 April 2010 would be allocated to financial year 2009 to 2010 not financial year 2010 to 2011. It should be noted that figures for 2010 will be lower, because only records from 1 April 2010 are included in the dataset.

Variable Name: MONTH
Variable Description: The month the incident took place
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

The month the incident took place. This would return “December” for 25 December 2015.

Variable Name: MONTH_CODE
Variable Description: A code to help users analyse data
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

Because the month variable is not in chronological order when sorted this code has been added, month 1 is January, month 2 is February etc. This would return “12” for 25 December 2015.

Variable Name: DAY
Variable Description: The day of the month the incident took place
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

The day of the month the incident took place, this would return “25” for 25 December 2015.

Variable Name: DATE
Variable Description: The date the incident took place
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

The date the incident took place, this would return “25/12/2015” for 25 December 2015.

Variable Name: DAY_OF_WEEK
Variable Description: The day of the week the incident took place
IRS Question: 2.1 (based on)

The day of the week (for example, Monday) the incident took place, this would return “Friday” for 25 December 2015.

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3. Variable by variable - incident

Variable Name: FRIS_INCIDENT_TYPE
Variable Description: The type of incident
IRS Question: 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 3.8 and 3.9 (based on)

Incidents are categorised into one of the 11 following types-

1) Primary fire - dwelling
2) Primary fire - other building
3) Primary fire - road vehicle
4) Primary fire - other outdoor

Primary fires are defined as fires that meet at least one of the following conditions:
(a) any fire that occurred in a (non-derelict) building, vehicle or outdoor structure,
(b) any fire involving fatalities, casualties or rescues,
(c) any fire attended by 5 or more pumping appliances.

5) Chimney fire

A chimney fire is any fire in a building where the flame was contained within the chimney structure and did not involve casualties, rescues or attendance by 5 or more pumping appliances.

6) Secondary fire

A secondary fire is any fire that isn’t a primary or chimney fire.

7) Fire false alarm - due to apparatus
8) Fire false alarm - good intent
9) Fire false alarm - malicious

A fire false alarm is where the FRS attends a location believing there to be a fire incident, but, on arrival, discovers that no such incident exists, or existed. If the appliances are ‘turned around’ by Command and Control before arriving at the incident, then the incident is not classed as having been attended and is not recorded. Fire false alarm incidents are split into three sub-categories, defined below.

A fire false alarm due to apparatus is a call initiated by a fire alarm or fire-fighting equipment operating (including the accidental initiation of alarm apparatus by persons or where an alarm operates and a person then routinely calls the FRS as part of a standing arrangement).

A fire false alarm with good intent is a call made in good faith in the belief that the FRS really would attend an incident. If a person’s mental condition means they do not understand the consequences of their actions then false alarm good intent is recorded rather than false alarm malicious.

A malicious fire false alarm is a call made with the intention of getting the FRS to attend a non-existent incident, including deliberate and suspected malicious intentions. If a person’s mental condition is unrelated to their ability to understand the consequences of their actions then a malicious fire false alarm is still recorded.

10) Non-fire incident
11) Non-fire false alarm

A non-fire incident (sometimes known as a ‘special service incident’) is any incident that requires the attendance of an appliance or officer and is not a fire or false alarm. This includes attending road traffic accidents, effecting entry or exit, attending medical co-responding incidents or flooding incidents. The training of individuals, fire safety activities and testing equipment are not included.