There have been 381 hot work fires in England in the past two years, our findings have revealed, most of which were ignited by welding or cutting equipment.

Training specialist CE Safety has once again published the findings of collected data, which reveals the number of fires caused by hot work in the construction industry in the last two financial years (2023/24 and 2024/25). This is the fourth research of its kind to be published by CE Safety.

The stakes are high when things go wrong. There were 32 casualties in these latest incident figures, reinforcing how hot work doesn’t come without risk and the importance of having robust levels of care, skill, training and systems put in place before undertaking duties.

The most notorious fire in the UK caused by hot work was at a West Sussex school, Selsey Academy, in 2016. It is thought to have been ignited by a gas torch during roof repairs, the damage was said to cost about £20 million and an investigation highlighted multiple safety failings.

Hot work fires in 2023/24 in England

During the 2023/24 financial year (April to April) there were 199 recorded hot work-related fires, 169 of which started when using welding or cutting equipment.

Out of these total incidents, 12 happened in buildings under construction. This figure is about 1.5% of total fires recorded in England that year.

In 10% of these hot work-related fires, there was at least one casualty involved.

London had the most hot work fires (19), which accounted for 1% of all fires there.
Devon and Somerset recorded 17 hot work fires (3.91% of all fires).
West Yorkshire also had 17 hot work fires (3% of all fires there), involving 3 casualties or fatalities at the scene.

Hot work fires in 2024/25 in England

By comparison, figures were down more recently, with a total of 182fires caused by hot work in England during the 2024/25 financial year (1.3% of all fires), with the ignition being welding or cutting in 155 of these incidents.

Eight happened in buildings under construction and 13 casualties were reported.

London Fire Brigade reported 14 hot work fires, which accounted for 0.81% of all fires there.
West Midlands had 11 (1.74% of all fires).
In Humberside there were 10 hot work fires (3.13% of all fires).
Hampshire and Isle of Wight also had 10 (2.53% of all fires).
Greater Manchester also had 10 (1.14% of all fires).

The regions with the highest ratio of hot work fires versus all fires was Cumbria with 4.55% and Derbyshire with 4.06%.

Most recent data for hot work fires in Wales

In 2023/24, there were 30 fires in Wales relating to hot works, and 23 of these were caused by welding or cutting equipment.

This breaks down as:

Mid and West Wales – 8
North Wales – 9
South Wales – 13

Most recent data for hot work fires in Scotland

During the same year (2023/24), there were 6 accidental figures relating to hot works. Five of these reported blow lamps or paint removers as their source of ignition.

In 2024/25, there were 5 fires where the source of ignition related to hot works, 4 of which were related to blow lamps or paint removers.

The importance of specialist training

Hot works safety training specialist at CE Safety, Gary Ellis, said: “While numbers of hot works fires are not huge in the grand scheme of things, our dive into the figures proves that these highly dangerous incidents do happen consistently every year. But often, they are wholly avoidable.

“While operatives and fire watchers are usually very skilled in their trade, whether that be using oxy-fuel equipment such as acetylene or propane and oxygen, abrasive wheels such as STIHL saws, electric welding or blowlamps and blowtorches, there is often a lack of understanding of the fire and explosive risk associated with carrying out hot works.

“Hot work duties often involve all three components of the triangle of fire, whereas other tasks nearly always involve avoiding creating the triangle of fire, however many workers who administer it have never undergone practical fire extinguisher training that involves physically discharging a fire extinguisher, and most don’t understand the difference between a combustible and flammable material, or which is the much greater fire risk.

“There is also often a lack of managerial oversight of hot work activities. The requirements for a fire risk assessment and hot work permit (HWP) are well known, but in many cases they are generic and treated more like a paper exercise by both the client and the contractor.

“The client has a responsibility to ensure that on-site contractors or in-house operatives are fully aware of the fire risks, understand the importance of a fire risk assessment and a hot work permit for each task, and are fully trained in the use of fire extinguishers to put out a small fire in its early stages, if that should occur.”

Training that would cover all of this is a specialist Hot Work Passport course.

How we collected this data

This study analysed data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) across all 43 of England’s Fire and Rescue Services.

For Wales, this data was collected from statwales.gov.wales. For Scotland, this data was collected from firescotland.gov.uk.

We have the statistics from the past two years from England and Scotland, however Wales is not due to release the information for 2024/25 until the end of 2025, so we did not have this at the time of writing.

A Freedom of Information request was submitted to Northern Ireland’s fire service, however they do not hold this data.

Latest figures: Regions with the most hot work fires {2023-2025}