Faulty electric supply fires have hit a 16 year high, defying wider trends showing fewer fires.
That’s the message from the Fusion Electrical contracting firm, which has used government and Freedom of Information request data to probe the issue.
It’s found that fires caused by wiring, cabling, plugs and mains installation rose to 2,575 in the year ending March 2026, the highest annual figure in the entire published series from the Home Office and a 13% rise in the last five years.
That works out at roughly seven house fires caused by electrical installations each day in England, while over the same period fires from faulty appliances actually fell slightly during the period (-2%).
Almost every other cause is falling too, from chip pan fires (from 1,508 to 964, a 36% drop) to misuse of equipment and appliances (a 12% drop), while deliberate fires fell 13%, leading to the number of fires in England dropping on the whole 3.1%.
A Fusion Electrical spokesperson says: “Everything the public has been told to worry about down the years, and as a result we’re more conscious of, is around the stuff we can see – chargers, batteries, air fryers.
“Those figures have barely moved, but the rise of fires based on what you can’t see is startling. Fixed wiring is the only major system in the home that most people will never inspect, never test and never really think about until something goes wrong.”
“Maintenance is the core problem here, and it is fixable. An Electrical Installation Condition Report is a formal check that looks at the wiring itself rather than the appliances plugged into it, and it costs a fraction of what people tend to assume.”
He adds: “The government’s decision to make EICRs compulsory for private and social landlords is of course a welcome move, but that still doesn’t protect almost two thirds of homes in England.
“We often check homes that haven’t had their wiring checked in decades, and it is a real concern. In fact, the rising number of fires being reported by the Home Office tells us that the concern is real. It’s important that people start taking out EICRs every five years and we’d encourage the government to extend the legalities to all homes across the country.”
This article is taken from Landlord Today