Contents
- Fireplace and chimney fires statistics: Welsh annual counts and changes
- Fireplace and chimney fires statistics by Welsh region
- Fireplace and chimney fires statistics: seasonal patterns and temperature
- Where recorded chimney fires occurred
- How to read these fireplace and chimney fires statistics
- Sources
Fireplace and chimney fires statistics: Welsh annual counts and changes
The available long-run figures point to a substantial decline in recorded chimney fires in Wales. The annual total was 896 in 2001–02. It fell to 595 by 2006–07, rose again to 812 in 2008–09, and then moved unevenly through the early 2010s. The 2014–15 report lists 549 incidents for that year, marked provisional. These are annual counts, not rates adjusted for population, number of homes, or fireplace use.
| Financial year | Chimney fires in Wales |
|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 896 |
| 2002–03 | 771 |
| 2003–04 | 703 |
| 2004–05 | 654 |
| 2005–06 | 669 |
| 2006–07 | 595 |
| 2007–08 | 620 |
| 2008–09 | 812 |
| 2009–10 | 790 |
| 2010–11 | 771 |
| 2011–12 | 615 |
| 2012–13 | 771 |
| 2013–14 (revised) | 578 |
| 2014–15 (provisional) | 549 |
Source: Fire statistics Wales, 2014-15, Table 5. The report marks 2013–14 revised and 2014–15 provisional.
More recent releases report much lower totals. Wales recorded 218 chimney fires in 2023–24, described in that release as the lowest number in its time series at publication. The count rose 6% to 230 in 2024–25, then fell 17% to 191 in FYE 2026. The latter two financial-year figures are provisional, as is the 2023–24 figure. Taken together, these releases show that the recent annual totals remained below 250, despite the increase in 2024–25.
Sources: 2023–24, 2024–25, and April 2025 to March 2026 Welsh fire and rescue incident statistics releases.
Fireplace and chimney fires statistics by Welsh region
The long-run table divides Wales into North Wales, Mid and West Wales, and South Wales fire and rescue service areas. In 2001–02, North Wales recorded 439 chimney fires, Mid and West Wales 276, and South Wales 181. North Wales had the largest count among the three areas in that year.
The regional totals changed over time. In 2008–09, the national count reached 812, with 380 in North Wales, 326 in Mid and West Wales, and 106 in South Wales. By 2014–15, the provisional counts were 217, 220, and 112 respectively, for a Wales total of 549. In that final year, the Mid and West Wales count was slightly higher than North Wales, while South Wales remained lower.
| Financial year | North Wales | Mid and West Wales | South Wales | Wales total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 439 | 276 | 181 | 896 |
| 2008–09 | 380 | 326 | 106 | 812 |
| 2014–15 (provisional) | 217 | 220 | 112 | 549 |
Source: Fire statistics Wales, 2014-15, Table 5. These are counts by service area; the table does not provide population-adjusted rates, so the figures should not be read as comparing individual risk between regions.
Fireplace and chimney fires statistics: seasonal patterns and temperature
The 2014–15 Welsh bulletin examined monthly chimney-fire counts alongside mean temperatures for 2009–10 to 2014–15. It reported an R² value of 0.92 for the relationship between the two series (the chart annotation gives 0.9175) and described this as a strong correlation. This summarizes how closely the measures moved together in that analysis; it does not establish that temperature caused the changes in fire counts.
Two comparisons in the report illustrate the pattern. In April 2014, Wales had 40% fewer chimney fires than in April 2013, while average temperature was almost 3 degrees higher, which the report expressed as 44%. In January to March 2015, chimney fires increased 8% compared with the same months in 2014, while the average temperature was 1.5 degrees lower. These are comparisons for specified months and years, not estimates of the effect of a temperature change on fire risk.
Source: Fire statistics Wales, 2014-15, “Statistical analysis of chimney fire and temperature data” and accompanying discussion of Chart 6a.
Where recorded chimney fires occurred
The dwelling share was consistently high in the reported years. In 2014–15, 96% of Welsh chimney fires occurred in dwellings. The share was 94% in 2023–24 and 97% in each of 2024–25 and FYE 2026. These percentages describe the location category of recorded chimney-fire incidents in Wales for each respective year; they are not the percentage of dwellings that experienced a fire.
| Financial year | Welsh chimney fires occurring in dwellings |
|---|---|
| 2014–15 | 96% |
| 2023–24 | 94% |
| 2024–25 | 97% |
| FYE 2026 | 97% |
Sources: Fire statistics Wales, 2014-15; Welsh fire and rescue incident statistics for 2023–24, 2024–25, and April 2025 to March 2026.
How to read these fireplace and chimney fires statistics
These figures count chimney fires attended and recorded by Welsh fire and rescue services. They do not provide a UK-wide or international total, nor do they isolate every fire involving a fireplace from other chimney-fire incidents. The evidence supplied here does not identify causes, fuel types, chimney condition, injuries, or damage, so the counts cannot answer those questions.
The time comparisons also span reports that label some observations provisional or revised. The 2014–15 report identifies 2013–14 as revised and 2014–15 as provisional; the more recent releases describe their annual figures as provisional. The stated lowest-in-series point of 218 applies to the 2023–24 release and its time series at publication. Read alongside those qualifications, the records offer a useful picture of reported volume: totals in the hundreds during much of the early 2000s and 2010s, and fewer than 250 in each of the latest four reported years shown here.