The resources that we put in place are based on an assessment of risk across the service
area. We call our assessment of risk the Community Risk Profile (CRP). You can read our
Community Risk profile in full on our website Community Risk Profile 2025 – North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service

Our research and understanding of the factors that create risk have been considered, based on a wide range of information from a variety of sources. This has helped us to prioritise the risks we need to focus on: accidental dwelling fires leading to death and serious injury, incidents on our roads and incidents related to a changing climate. Information is also included about economic, political, climate and societal changes so that we have a good understanding of the issues which are likely to affect our communities and our Service in future years. This analysis helps us to understand the
needs of our communities so that we can shape our prevention, protection, and emergency response interventions and enhance community resilience.

Through this data and information, we now have a comprehensive understanding of the risk factors and hazards which exist in York and North Yorkshire which increase the likelihood of our services being needed. More importantly, it allows us to understand how and where we can intervene, reducing the need for an emergency response. We regularly
monitor the changing risks in York and North Yorkshire.

We have focused on priority areas that present the greatest threat/harm to life from a fire and rescue perspective in York and North Yorkshire:
• Accidental dwelling fire risk and fatality/ injury risk
• Road risk and fatality/ serious injury risk
• Climate related risks, such as flooding, other water related incidents or wildfires.
• Fires which impact businesses

Accidental dwelling (home) fires

The risk of death and injury from a fire at home, at work and in the wider community tragically still exists across the UK. Around three-quarters of fire deaths still occur in
dwellings. Across England in the year to March 2024 there were 251 fire-related deaths,
this is a decrease of 5.3% compared with the previous year, and a decrease of 9.1%
compared with 10 years ago (HMG Home Office, 2024).Over the last 10 years there have been 30 fire-related deaths in York and North Yorkshire.

The number of fires attended by Fire and Rescue Services nationally saw a significant decline over a decade, dropping by approximately two-thirds from a peak of about 474,000 in the year ending March 2004 to roughly 154,000 by March 2013. Since then, the annual number of fires has varied between 150,000 and 185,000, with the highest
number recorded in the year ending March 2019, largely due to the hot, dry summer of 2018. The year ending March 2021 had the lowest recorded number of fires since comparable records began in March 1996, likely influenced by the restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic but subsequently rose the following year (HMG Home Office, 2024).

The downward trend reflects the proactive prevention and protection work we carry out
to stop these incidents from occurring in the first place, as well as improved fire safety standards, building design and regulations, changing cooking habits, increased smoke alarm ownership, and a reduction in smoking (HMG Home Office, 2020). The fact that the downward trend has slowed over recent years shows that there are some members of the community who are harder to reach, and we need to concentrate resources to ensure we can deliver proactive safety advice to those people who still have a higher likelihood of
experiencing a dwelling fire. 

New government targets require at least an additional 5,483 homes to be built in York and North Yorkshire by 2029/2030 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 2024) although these homes will meet modern safety regulations, significantly reducing fire risk. Even in older buildings, renovation and improvement works to modern standards, should also reduce fire risk.

Combined Fire Risk

We have worked with a company called Operational Research Health (ORH) to understand the risk from dwelling fires in our county. ORH helps emergency services around the world to optimise resource use and respond in the most effective and efficient way. The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), in collaboration with ORH, produced a methodology for dwelling fire risk categorisation as part of NFCC’s Definition of Risk project.

NFCC and ORH took a data-driven approach to researching the risk factors that underpin the likelihood and consequence of dwelling fires. This is primarily based on place and property data, rather than people. We have also worked with ORH to produce information
at household level, using the MOSAIC data set, which can help us pinpoint people who would most benefit from support and advice.

We use this data to focus our engagement, and this has enabled us to carry out over 2000 more Home Fire Safety Visits through 2024 to High and Very High households ensuring that we are targeting those most vulnerable in our communities.

Road Risk

Between 2019 and the end of 2023 there were 4,926 collisions recorded on York and North Yorkshire’s roads which resulted in 6,882 casualties. Of these 197 people were killed and 1,562 were seriously injured (Department for Transport, 2025). Through the York and North Yorkshire Road Safety Partnership, we collate this information and use it to focus our prevention resources in areas where we can have the biggest impact in reducing the number of collisions and injuries.

We also partnered with ORH to build a picture of the risk of being killed or seriously injured on the roads in North Yorkshire. NFCC and ORH have produced a report into the likelihood, consequence and risk of road traffic collisions (RTCs).

Our focus is on preventing and reducing the incidents that cause most harm i.e. the number of fatalities and serious injuries but also providing an effective response in the event of an incident requiring our attendance. Analysis of casualty and collision data enables us to identify who is at greater risk of being seriously injured or killed, where the most serious incidents are likely to occur, when they happen, and why. We use our prevention services to work as part of the York and North Yorkshire Road Safety Partnership, to reduce the likelihood of road traffic incidents occurring. 

Climate Related Incidents

The changing climate means we deal with a range of incidents resulting from more severe weather events which are becoming more common. The two main types are water and flooding from extreme rainfall and wildfires from hotter and drier periods. Both incident types are highlighted by the government in the National Risk Register and require a different type of response from us.

Serious flooding has affected North Yorkshire for many years. What used to be seen as a rare event – happening once every 100 years – is now likely to happen more often, around once every 10 years (North Yorkshire Council, 2023). These floods can take a lot of time, people, and equipment to deal with, especially because they often cover large areas.

The warming climate also creates extreme downpours leading to increased incidents of localised flooding, this has been evidenced through recent incidents, both nationally and locally. Within our previous CRMP, we increased our specialist water rescue provision, and this decision was supported by recent modelling by ORH.

We work closely with our partners in the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum to plan for and carry out training exercises for major flooding events. Flooding continues to be one of the highest-rated risks on the North Yorkshire Community Risk Register (NYLRF, 2025).

During the consultation period for this CRMP we had the declared major incident at
Fylingdales Moor. This was one of the largest wildfires in England and came following sustained periods of hot, dry weather with both Spring and Summer being declared the hottest on record. Access to the moorland, significant peat depth, dry combustible vegetation and exploded and unexploded ordnance provided significant challenges for our firefighters and other responders.

The approach to extinguishing the major incident was a true community response. Partner agencies, contractors and the local and farming communities played an integral part in our response. The nationally supported incident has altered our planning for such incidents and changes have been made within this CRMP to reflect the learning already captured from the incident.

We are increasing our provision of wildfire teams who have specialist vehicles, equipment and training. We will develop a community asset register, formalising contracts with those who can support attendance at such incidents. We will improve wildfire training, identify alternative vehicles, equipment and personal protective equipment to enhance our wildfire and rural response.

Large numbers of visitors to our coast during warm weather increases the number of incidents we attend in those areas. During dry weather, more people visit the national parks, which increases the risk of fires starting on the moorland. These incidents, like Fylingdales Moor can be very resource intensive to extinguish and can lead to lasting damage to the landscape and biodiversity.

Working with Businesses

Thriving communities need productive and resilient businesses, and fires do damage to both. The government estimates the average total cost from a fire in a non-dwelling building to be £124,200 (HMG Home Office, 2023). Our Protection department works with
employers and the owners of buildings to ensure that they are compliant with regulations to protect them from fire.

We follow a risk-based intervention programme to focus on places where our work will have the most impact. For example, we ensure we audit buildings where a fire could cause serious harm, such as a hospital or care home. We also audit buildings which are less likely to comply with legislation and those buildings more likely to have a severe fire that will have a greater impact on the business and the community.

Emerging Technologies

The way we provide power to our lives and heat our homes is changing. Infrastructure projects are being developed within North Yorkshire to harness renewable technologies.
Lithium-Ion batteries present a particular challenge for firefighting, and these are becoming more common, whether it be in transport such as cars and scooters, or for large scale storage of energy in the National Grid. We do share nationally agreed guidance with these developers but are not a statutory consultee on the planning of these sites.

We ensure we are aware of the location of these sites, and we have training and equipment in place to deal with incidents. We have developed and rolled out training to crews specifically to deal with electric vehicle fires and will continue to monitor developments and plan to respond appropriately.

Firefighter Safety

We have a robust process for identifying new risks that could pose a threat to firefghters during an incident. The identification of specific premises/sites is via a wide range of sources, including:

• Our own Risk Profile and existing premises/sites
• Police
•  Health and Safety Executive
•  Local Authority Emergency Planning Departments – COMAH sites
• Other emergency responders
• Neighbouring Fire and Rescue Services’ risk information (risks within 10 kilometres of our county borders).

We are investing in new equipment to ensure firefighters are well equipped to deal with the risks present in North Yorkshire.