Chimney fires: statistics and percentages
Read this in conjunction with:
Chimney Fires page - including what to do if you have a chimney fire.
Chimney Tar, Soot and condensates page.
Ways to reduce the risk of chimney fires page.
Why line and insulate your chimney?.
Chimney sweeping brushes and rods
Chimney fires stats
On this page are some statistics that will give you some idea of the relative risk of having a chimney fire.
The figures used here are from the National fire statistics and include fires reported and attended by the fire brigade. The figures do not include fires that were not reported to the fire brigade.
A chimney fire is defined within these figures as a fire that stayed in the chimney and did not spread to the house. So the chimney fire numbers here do not include chimney fires which then spread to other parts of the house.
In 2006 there were around 11,000 chimney fires in the UK. In the same year there were 56,000 house fires.
Numbers of chimney fires and house fires in the UK
The graph below shows the number of chimney fires and house fires from 1996 to 2006. As you can see the number of house fires and chimney fires has been falling. The number of chimney fires seems to level off at around 10,000 a year after 2003/2004.
The number of chimney fires and house fires from 1996 to 2006.
Figures from National fire statistics (available here)
Chimney fires as a percentage of chimney and house fires combined
The graph below shows chimney fires as a percentage of chimney fires and house fires combined. This gives an idea of the relative risk of having a chimney fire in relation to the risk of having any type of house fire. In 2006 around 15% of all fires that happened in the home were chimney fires.
Chimney fires as a percentage of chimney fires and house fires combined from 1996 to 2006.
Figures from National fire statistics (available here)
