Avon Fire and Rescue - Requires Improvement and More Funding?

Attended Incidents between Jan 2024 and April 2025

Avon Fire and Rescue have apparently got a lot of things that they can improve on, but as their funding continues to fall and they have to adapt to new causes of fire incidents, can we do more to support them?

Avon Fire and Rescue Service Assessment

Our Fire and Rescue Service assessments give you information about how your local fire and rescue service has performed in several important areas. In our latest assessments of Avon FRS, we made the following graded judgments:

The assessment above raises concerns about the Avon Fire and Rescue Service that most people may not be aware of. But what other data is available about the service?

Funding

From 2025 Annual Budget Information

Avon Fire & Rescue Service (AF&RS) protects the communities of Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. We continue to provide this vital service to keep you and your family safe, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year at cost of around 11p a day for each of the 1.1 million people who live in our area.

The proportion of Council Tax funding for Avon Fire and Rescue has fallen from 65% to 57% over the past 3 years.

The Government’s funding assessment for Avon Fire Authority has been increased by £0.211m (1%) to £20.800m for 2025/26.

Firefighters union warns UK is “vulnerable to disasters” in call for Labour to fund the fire service - 22 May 2025

Fire and rescue services have been decimated by cuts in the past fourteen years, with 1 in 5 firefighter posts axed – amounting to 12,000 fewer firefighters compared to 2010.

The union’s annual conference has today passed a motion calling for funding, noting that Labour was elected on a manifesto which pledged to "improve resilience and preparation" for the fire and rescue service.

However, central funding for English fire services announced for 2025-26 was only 1.4%, lower than the current rate of inflation and amounting to another funding cut.

Ahead of Westminster's spending review this summer, the FBU is calling on the government to commit serious, sustained central funding to build UK-wide resilience to the increasing risks from climate change, the building safety crisis and an ageing population.

Fire services get 50% less than police to cover tax rises - 18 Apr 2025

Most fire services in England are facing a shortfall in funding after the government failed to give them the same level of compensation for tax increases as the police.

The government is giving police forces an extra £230m which it says will fully cover the cost of the rise in employers' National Insurance contributions (Nics) which came into force last week.

Fire services face a similar rise in their wages bill – but the 31 that are directly funded by the government will only get top-up funds that cover 50% of the increase on average, according to BBC research.

One fire service said the 50% shortfall was the same cost as "a fully-staffed fire engine".

Freedom of Information Requests

AFRS receive a relatively small number of FOI Requests. They have received 29 so far in 2025, whilst Avon & Somerset Police have received 299 in the same period.

AFRS are very good at responding to their FOI Requests.

They do a much better job than Bristol Waste.

Green Energy and Liveable Neighbourhoods

Some recent news stories highlighted some of the impacts of Green Energy initiatives and Liveable Neighbourhood schemes on the AFRS.

Hospital blaze 'started in solar panels' - 23 May 2025

Avon Fire and Rescue Service station manager Ben Thorpe confirmed the cause was "accidental" and "due to a fault in the solar panels".

Mr Thorpe said there had been an increase in fires caused by solar panels.

"I think the statistics are showing that they are on the increase although of course solar panel installations are on the increase," he explained.

"Solar panels are inherently safe but I would say the advice given is that people should ensure they use a reputable company, they are qualified to install solar panels, with a regular maintenance schedule put in place."

All 188 residents to move out after tower block fire - 21 May 2025

Group manager for Avon Fire and Rescue Service, Paul Smith, has now confirmed the fire was caused by the charging of an e-scooter and that it has been recorded as an "accidental ignition". Mr Smith told the BBC no smoke damage spread through the building, but added there was some water damage caused by the sprinklers. He said fires caused by charging e-scooters is becoming "more and more commonplace in our communities", adding that people must "buy safely". He also advised people not to "tamper or alter the units at all". "Never over-charge them and don't charge them when you're away from home or at night," he added. "Don't charge them in areas where it will block your escape route or in communal areas either."

Fire engine gets stuck behind east Bristol LTN bollard - 09 Apr 2025

The filter on the Ducie Road bridge contains planters wide enough apart to let emergency vehicles through but the gap is blocked by a bollard which requires an access code to unlock and lower. The fire crew that attended the bin fire was pictured on Tuesday morning on the south east side of the bridge, with firefighters trying and failing to lower the bollard. A spokesperson for Avon Fire and Rescue Service said its crews were still getting used to the new routes in and out of Barton Hill and Redfield, but they were confident it wouldn’t affect their response times.

Guidance and Advice

Incidents Attended Data

The AFRS publish data about incidents attended on a monthly basis. They publish this data in a timely manner every month. The rest of this article presents some analysis of this data for incidents between Jan 2024 and April 2025.

You can view the detailed report pages for this data on the BU Report Pages (click on the Fire and Rescue button).

The number of incidents in April 2025 (527) is the highest number since June 2024 (548).

Looking at the number of incidents per population, these are the top wards.

False Alarms

38% of call outs in this period were false alarms. One of the main things we can do to support the AFRS is to help reduce the number of false alarms.

The impact of false alarms

Every time a fire crew is called out to a false alarm, it takes away valuable resources that may be urgently needed elsewhere. The impact of these incidents extends further than people might realise:

Strain on resources: Firefighters and emergency vehicles are diverted from real emergencies, where every second counts.
Business disruption: Evacuations caused by false alarms can bring operations to a standstill, affecting productivity and service delivery.
Safety risks: Emergency vehicles responding at speed to unnecessary callouts create avoidable risks on the road.
Cost to the community: Each false alarm carries a cost in time, equipment, and operational resources that could be better used elsewhere.

See AFRS - Reduce the number of false alarms

Top 10 False Alarms by Population

Top 10 False Alarm Wards by Percentage

The main cause of False Alarms was "Cooking/Burnt Toast" at 15% (408 of 2,750). "Smoking" was 4% (108 of 2,750). "Malicious False Alarms" accounted for 3.6% of False Alarms (101 of 2,750)

Fire Incidents

There were 1,978 fire incidents in this period (27% of all incidents).

Top 10 Wards where Injuries were reported at fire incidents:

Top "Property Type" categories:

Most fires (169) were linked to rubbish and recycling containers (excluding wheelie bins). 54 were in wheelie bins.

For vehicles Cars are top (118), followed by Motorcycles (90) and then Vans (29). 14 incidents were related to e-Scooters and e-Bikes.

There were also 54 Prison fire incidents (same number as Wheelie bins). Almost all of the prison fire incidents were related to smoking. 51 of the incidents were Deliberate and only 3 were Accidental.

176 incidents were linked to cooking appliances. Interesting to note that Microwaves are twice as likely than Deep Fat Fryers to be ignition sources.