Each year, East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service meets thousands of people, whether through our work to prevent emergencies, to protect buildings through fire safety work or when we respond to 999 calls.
For us Every Contact Counts - and that’s not just contact with the public, but with our own colleagues, volunteers and cadets.
Our Impact Report shines a light on how our approach has affected peoples lives.
East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service welcomes the findings of a new report which recognises further progress in it's performace
Impact Report 2024-2025
Historical low number of accidental fires in homes
- The number of accidental fires in the home has fallen to its lowest ever recorded in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove
- Between 1 April 2024 and 30 March 2025, East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service recorded 366 accidental dwelling fires – a decrease from the previous year’s 436.
- More than 90% of these fires were confined to the room in which they started.
- Overall there was a decrease in the number of incidents attended by the Service from 10,562 the previous year to 9,422.
- Overall fires affecting property (known as Primary fires) has decreased from 1,011 to 900, and the number of deliberate fires decreased from 707 to 673.
Reducing risk
We carry out a range of activities to reduce the risk of incidents.
In 2024/25 we carried out 9,017 Home Safety Visits. 91.7% of these home safety visits were to vulnerable people within our community
We also carried out 504 fire safety inspections of high-risk premises, and 1117 fire safety checks were completed by operational fire crews.
Response standards
When incidents do occur, we have standards to measure whether we arrive promptly.
- 76.4% of the first arriving appliances at any incident from an ‘On- Station response’ within 10 minutes.
- 74.4% of the first arriving appliances at any incident from an ‘On-Call response’ within 15 minutes.