India recorded 5,971 fire accidents and 5,888 deaths in 2024, according to NCRB data compiled by Dataful. In 2022 the figures were 7,566 accidents and 7,435 deaths, the lowest in 25 years, as compiled by Factly. Cooking gas and electrical short circuits are the two named causes that lead every year, and about half of all fires happen in homes.
How many fire accidents happen in India?
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) counts fire accidents every year in its report Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI). The long trend is down. According to Factly's review of 25 years of ADSI data shows 22,788 fire accidents and 27,561 deaths in 1996, and a peak of 27,976 accidents in 1999.
According to the same data, by 2022 the count had fallen to 7,566 accidents and 7,435 deaths. Dataful's compilation of the ADSI series shows a further fall, as reported by NCRB, to 5,971 accidents, 5,888 deaths and 330 injuries in 2024, against 18,450 accidents and 17,700 deaths in 2015.
| Year | Fire accidents | Deaths | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 22,788 | 27,561 | Data from NCRB ADSI via Factly |
| 1999 (peak) | 27,976 | not stated | Data from NCRB ADSI via Factly |
| 2015 | 18,450 | 17,700 | Data from NCRB ADSI via Dataful |
| 2022 | 7,566 | 7,435 | Data from NCRB ADSI via Factly |
| 2024 | 5,971 | 5,888 | Data from NCRB ADSI via Dataful |
Fewer accidents is good news. But nearly one death per recorded accident in 2024 means the fires that do happen are still very dangerous.
What causes most fires in India?
ADSI names a few causes and puts the rest under "other". Two named causes lead every year: cooking gas cylinder or stove bursts, and electrical short circuits.
- Electrical short circuits: 1,567 cases in 2022, up from 3% of accidents in 1996 to 21% in 2022 (data from Factly). In 2024 they caused 17.2% of fire deaths (data from Dataful).
- Cooking gas cylinder or stove bursts: 1,551 cases in 2022, down from 27% of accidents in 1996 to 20% (data from Factly). In 2024 they caused 23.6% of fire deaths (data from Dataful).
- Fireworks: about 2% of accidents on average (data from Factly), and 2.3% of deaths in 2024 (data from Dataful).
- Other causes: 57% of deaths in 2024 (data from Dataful). This is the largest group, and the data does not break it down.
The rise of electrical fires matters for buildings. More cables, more equipment and more risers mean more places where a fault can start a fire inside a wall, ceiling or shaft that nobody watches.
Where fires happen
Homes come first. Factly reports 4,028 fire accidents in residential buildings in 2022, almost half of the total, and 241 in commercial buildings, about 3%. Dataful's 2024 figures show 3,585 fires in residential buildings, 277 in commercial buildings and 149 in factories.
Per the same data, commercial buildings have fewer fires, but each one puts many people at risk at once: offices, hospitals, hotels and malls hold crowds who do not know the building well.
States with the most fire accidents
Between 2014 and 2022, five states made up more than 75% of fire accidents, according to Factly: Madhya Pradesh 23%, Maharashtra 19%, Gujarat 13%, Karnataka 12% and Tamil Nadu 10%. Two of the five are in South India.
For deaths in 2024, according to NCRB data, Dataful lists Maharashtra (639), Tamil Nadu (537), Uttar Pradesh (489), Madhya Pradesh (452) and Odisha (442) at the top. Neither source gives separate figures for Telangana, Andhra Pradesh or Kerala, so we do not quote any.
What the data does not show
ADSI records how a fire started and where. It does not record how the fire and smoke spread, and that is what decides whether a small fire stays small.
In a building, fire and smoke travel through gaps: an electrical shaft left open between floors, a cable tray passing through a wall with no seal, a pipe opening above a false ceiling. The National Building Code of India 2016, Part 4, asks for buildings to be split into fire compartments so a fire is held in one zone. Every unsealed opening breaks that promise, quietly and out of sight.
Where to look first in your own building: electrical and plumbing shafts at every floor slab, cable trays where they cross fire rated walls, the space above false ceilings, openings around AC and drain pipes, and the joints where walls meet floors. These are the places fit-outs and new cabling disturb most often, and they are rarely checked after handover.
So the useful question for a building owner is not only "what could start a fire here?" but "if one starts, what will stop it from reaching the next floor?" That is the work of shaft closing and fire stop mortar, fire rated sealants and fire pillows for cable trays. Our guide to fire compartmentation as per NBC explains the rules in plain words.
If you are not sure your shafts and penetrations are sealed, a passive fire audit checks them floor by floor with photographs. If everything is already sealed and documented, we will say so and you will not need us.
Using these numbers
You are welcome to use the table on this page in articles, reports and training. Please cite the original NCRB ADSI report and link to this page as the compiled source. We update the table when NCRB publishes a new edition.
Simfy Firesys, "Fire Accident Statistics in India: What the NCRB Data Shows", https://simfyfiresys.in/blog/fire-accident-statistics-india/ (data: NCRB, Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India).
