Home / Fire and rescue
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service
Covers North Yorkshire and York.
Other fire services on this site: Humberside Fire and Rescue Service.
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service right now
0 of 2 better than England
The latest figures, the year to April 2025. Coloured against England: ▼ worse ● about the same ▲ better.
There is no national response time standard for fires.
April 2025 to March 2026
The clock runs from the moment the 999 call is answered by the fire service to the first fire engine arriving. "Serious fires" are what the statistics call primary fires: those in buildings and vehicles, or involving casualties or five or more engines. 768 were counted this year.
Where the time goes
| Serious fires | North | England | Similar areas |
|---|---|---|---|
| Handling the 999 call | 1 min 36 sec | 1 min 26 sec | 1 min 13 sec |
| Crew getting moving | 2 min 22 sec | 1 min 33 sec | 2 min 28 sec |
| Driving to the fire | 8 min 45 sec | 6 min 25 sec | 7 min 34 sec |
| Total | 12 min 44 sec | 9 min 25 sec | 11 min 15 sec |
Red: worse than England. Green: better than England. Black: about the same as England. A figure within 5% of England counts as about the same. "Similar areas" is the average for fire services classed as intermediate rural areas, the same as this one. Rural services take longer because of distance, so this is the fairer comparison.
By kind of fire
| Kind of fire | Fires | Average response | England | Similar areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| House and flat fires | 237 | 10 min 43 sec | 8 min 15 sec | 9 min 55 sec |
| Fires in other buildings, such as shops, offices and care homes | 192 | 12 min 48 sec | 9 min 12 sec | 11 min 2 sec |
| Vehicle fires | 242 | 14 min 21 sec | 10 min 19 sec | 11 min 57 sec |
| Serious outdoor fires | 97 | 13 min 27 sec | 12 min 10 sec | 13 min 58 sec |
| Smaller outdoor fires, such as bins and grass | 1,095 | 13 min 35 sec | 9 min 58 sec | 11 min 30 sec |
Year by year
Average time to reach a serious fire, in minutes
▼ Getting worse: 12 min 44 sec in April 2025 to March 2026, against 12 min 25 sec the year before.
- North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service
- England
- Covid, March 2020 to March 2022
| Year | Serious fires | Average response | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 2025 to March 2026 | 768 | 12 min 44 sec | 9 min 25 sec |
| April 2024 to March 2025 | 662 | 12 min 25 sec | 9 min 6 sec |
| April 2023 to March 2024 | 708 | 12 min 3 sec | 9 min 3 sec |
| April 2022 to March 2023 | 1,005 | 13 min 4 sec | 9 min 13 sec |
| April 2021 to March 2022 | 876 | 11 min 37 sec | 8 min 50 sec |
| April 2020 to March 2021 | 819 | 11 min 31 sec | 8 min 35 sec |
Reading these figures fairly
- There is no national standard. Each fire service sets its own response targets, so figures are coloured against England only.
- Distance matters. A service covering villages and farmland will always be slower than one covering a city. Both services here cover cities and countryside.
- Averages hide the longest waits. These figures do not show how long the slowest responses took.
- Fires only. Road crashes, floods and rescues, which are a large part of the work, are not in these response figures.
No reply yet
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service has not replied. Every service named on this site can publish a response beside its figures.
Work for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service? How to reply.