Fire and rescue services in England attended 256 industrial waste fires in 2025, up from 183 in 2021, and 32 of them lasted more than 24 hours. Lithium-ion batteries are a growing cause: NFCC reports more than 1,200 battery fires in bin lorries and waste sites across the UK in a year. Every figure below has its source and the date we last checked it.
By Woodcock AI · Published · Last checked 22 October 2026
In 2025, fire and rescue services in England attended 256 industrial waste fires, the highest of the five years in the latest government table. The count dipped in 2023 and has risen since.
| Year (ending December) | Fires attended | Lasting over 24 hours |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 183 | 23 |
| 2022 | 219 | 25 |
| 2023 | 192 | 16 |
| 2024 | 212 | 22 |
| 2025 | 256 | 32 |
Fire and rescue services in England attended 256 industrial waste fires in the year ending December 2025, up from 183 in 2021. Of the 256, 195 were at recycling properties and 61 at other waste properties.
Source: MHCLG, Table A81, published 22 July 2026. Last checked 22 October 2026.
32 of the industrial waste fires in 2025 had a recorded incident duration of more than 24 hours, up from 23 in 2021.
Source: MHCLG, Table A81. Last checked 22 October 2026.
The most common recorded main cause in 2025 was "overheating, unknown cause", for 65 of the 256 fires.
Source: MHCLG, Table A81. Last checked 22 October 2026.
Batteries hidden in vapes, phones and other small electricals are thrown away in huge numbers, and when they are crushed or punctured in a bin lorry or at a site they can start a fire. These are the most quoted UK figures.
More than 1,200 battery fires in bin lorries and waste sites across the UK in a year, up 71% from 700 in 2022. NFCC is reporting local authority research by Material Focus.
Source: NFCC, 10 May 2024, citing Material Focus research. Last checked 22 October 2026.
About 6 billion batteries were thrown away across the UK in a year, and 1.1 billion of them were hidden inside discarded electrical devices such as toothbrushes, phones and vapes.
Source: ESA battery fire policy briefing, 15 September 2025. Last checked 22 October 2026.
The ESA estimates battery-related fires now cost over £1 billion a year, up from £150 million a year in 2021.
Source: ESA battery fire policy briefing, 15 September 2025. Last checked 22 October 2026.
Research by Eunomia with the ESA estimated lithium-ion batteries caused around 48% of UK waste fires. This is an older estimate.
Source: Eunomia and ESA, January 2021, reported by NFCC. Last checked 22 October 2026.
A battery fire in waste can show first as a thin plume of grey or white smoke from a pile, a skip or a bale, before there is open flame. On infrared at night it can look like a pale haze drifting across the frame. That visible smoke is what video detection can pick up on cameras a site already has.
Permitted waste sites in England that store combustible waste usually need a fire prevention plan. These three points come up most often.
For sites that need a fire prevention plan, the Environment Agency expects a fire to be extinguished within 4 hours, unless an alternative has been agreed.
Source: Environment Agency, fire prevention plans guidance. Last checked 22 October 2026.
The same guidance expects at least 6m between waste piles, and between waste and the site boundary, buildings and other combustibles.
Source: Environment Agency, fire prevention plans guidance. Last checked 22 October 2026.
The Environment Agency published appropriate measures for permitted waste battery facilities on 21 May 2026. Areas where waste batteries are stored, handled or treated must have appropriate fire detection and suppression.
Source: Environment Agency, waste batteries appropriate measures. Last checked 22 October 2026.
Illustrative 3D renderMost waste fires are put out, but the ones that grow are the ones nobody spots early. The figures point to three practical steps.
When the AI sees smoke or flame, the people you choose get an alert with the video clip, so they can check it and act, even when the site is closed. Every event is saved, so you can review what happened afterwards.
Woodcock AI watches the CCTV cameras a site already has for the first signs of smoke and flame, and sends an alert with the clip. It supports a fire prevention plan; it does not replace a certified fire alarm, suppression or the plan itself.
We only publish figures we can trace to a public source, and we link to that source. For the England figures we downloaded MHCLG Table A81, which lists one row per industrial waste fire attended by a fire and rescue service, and counted the rows by year, by duration over 24 hours and by recorded main cause. The table counts fires at recycling and waste properties in England only, not the whole UK, and reflects records that reached the Incident Recording System by 3 May 2026, so later revisions may change the counts slightly.
Industrial waste fires attended at recycling and waste properties in England, one row per incident.
UK-wide battery fires in bin lorries and at waste sites, from fire and rescue service reports.
UK-wide estimates of batteries thrown away and the cost of battery-related fires.
The battery figures come from NFCC and the ESA. They cover the whole UK, and the NFCC count includes fires in bin lorries as well as at waste sites, so they cannot be compared directly with the England table. We give the date of each source, because older estimates are often repeated as if they were current.
If you spot an error or a newer figure, email office@woodcock.ai.
A free site assessment looks at your cameras and the areas where fires are most likely to start out of hours.
Illustrative 3D renderKeep reading, or see how Woodcock AI would cover your own site.
