India Home Fire Trends: Fewer Recorded Deaths, Same Old Causes

A red fire engine on duty on a street in Mumbai
File photo: a fire engine on duty in Mumbai. Photo: AroundTheGlobe via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
Recorded deaths fallingUpdated 18 October 2026

Trend summary

  • NCRB counted 5,888 fire accident deaths in 2024, down from 17,700 in 2015. Accidents and deaths each fell by about 15% between 2023 and 2024.
  • Homes are where most fires happen: 3,585 of 5,971 recorded fire accidents in 2024 were in residential buildings.
  • Two household causes stand out. Cooking gas cylinder or stove bursts were linked to 23.6% of fire deaths in 2024 and electrical short circuits to 17.2%.
  • Big house fires still happen. A fire in a family home at Gulzar Houz, Hyderabad, killed 17 people in May 2025, and fires in homes in Indore and Delhi each killed seven or more in 2026.
5,888Fire accident deaths, 2024 (NCRB)
3,585Fires in residential buildings, 2024
23.6%Fire deaths from cooking gas bursts, 2024
−67%Fire accident deaths, 2015 to 2024

What the numbers show

India’s main source is the National Crime Records Bureau’s yearly report, Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India (ADSI). Its 2024 edition, summarised by Dataful, records 5,971 fire accidents, 5,888 deaths and 330 injuries. In 2015 the same series showed 18,450 accidents and 17,700 deaths. Residential buildings accounted for 3,585 fire accidents in 2024, against 7,493 in 2015. An earlier analysis by Factly found the residential share had risen from about 40% of fires in 2015 to 57.6% in 2019, because fires elsewhere fell faster.

The causes have shifted slowly. Cooking gas cylinder and stove bursts were tied to 23.6% of fire deaths in 2024, up from about 19.2% in 2015 (Dataful). Electrical short circuits went from about 15% of fires in 2016 to nearly 21% in 2020, according to Factchecker‘s reading of NCRB data. The oil companies keep their own count of LPG accidents where a leak was the main cause of fire: 929 accidents and 267 deaths in 2016-17, 1,151 and 292 in 2017-18, and 983 and 254 in 2018-19 (Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas). Later replies to the Lok Sabha gave 825 accidents in 2019-20, 1,019 in 2020-21 and 606 in 2021-22 (IANS via Daijiworld).

What is driving it

More homes cook with LPG than ever. The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana had issued 9.34 crore (93.4 million) connections by July 2022 (PIB). In 2018 a parliamentary panel warned that LPG accidents were rising alongside the scheme, with at least 260 deaths in 2017-18 (Business Standard). Cylinders are built to IS 3196, tested by BIS and must be re-tested ten years after manufacture and every five years after that; oil companies’ insurance pays ₹6 lakh (600,000 rupees) per death in an LPG accident (PIB).

Wiring is the other big factor. Short circuits now cause a larger share of fires than a decade ago, and recent cases add new sources such as electric vehicles charged at home. Fire service is a state subject in India. The Centre circulated a Model Bill on fire and emergency services to the states in September 2019 and launched a ₹5,000 crore (50 billion rupees) scheme to expand and modernise state fire services in July 2023 (PIB). By 31 January 2026, proposals from all 28 states had been approved and ₹1,798.20 crore released (PIB).

Recent cases

  • 13 October 2026: Two women died after a late-night fire in a multi-storey residential building in Vasai-Virar, Palghar district, Maharashtra. Around 25 to 30 people were evacuated; investigators are checking fire safety approvals and a possible short circuit in an electrical panel (ETV Bharat).
  • 3 May 2026: Nine people were killed when fire spread through a four-storey residential building in Vivek Vihar, Shahdara, East Delhi, before dawn. The cause had not been confirmed. The Prime Minister announced ₹2 lakh for the families of each person who died (The Week; PIB).
  • 18 March 2026: Seven members of one family died in a fire at a three-floor house in Indore. Initial reports said an electric car charging outside caught fire, and four LPG cylinders inside then exploded (All India Radio News).

Press releases and official reports, 2023–2026

Up to five key releases a year for the last four years, newest first. Most come from Government of India ministries through the Press Information Bureau (PIB), national agencies such as NCRB, the Reserve Bank of India and the National Center for Seismology, and state governments; a few news reports and data analyses are included where they are the clearest public record of an event. Releases from 2007–2022 are in the expandable list after 2023.

2026

2025

2024

2023

View 20 years of major Indian home fire press releases (2007–2026)13 more from 2007–2022, up to five a year, newest first

2022

2020

2019

2018

2015

2014

2012

Many years list fewer than five items, and some have none yet. Older Government of India releases are hard to find at their original addresses, and we only list items we could open and check. We are still adding to these lists. Where a page shows no date, the date comes from the release address or the publisher’s own index.

Photo list

Workers loading LPG cylinders onto a boat on the Matla River, West Bengal
File photo: LPG cylinders being loaded onto a boat on the Matla River at Godkhali, West Bengal. Cooking gas bursts were linked to 23.6% of fire deaths in 2024. Photo: Biswarup Ganguly via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.
A fire extinguisher demonstration at a science centre in Kolkata
File photo: a fire extinguisher demonstration at the National Council of Science Museums, Kolkata. Photo: Biswarup Ganguly via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.

Related on ROR Labs

How this page is built. Figures come from the official statistical releases linked above; where agencies publish provisional numbers we say so, because they are revised. Many Indian statistics are compiled state by state and published a year or two late (NCRB’s accident report for 2024 came out in 2026), so we say which year each figure covers. Large numbers are written in international form, with lakh (100,000) and crore (10 million) in brackets where Indian sources use them. Photos are public-domain or Creative Commons images credited in each caption; file photos are illustrative and are not from the events described unless the caption says so. This page tracks trends and is not personal safety, medical, legal or financial advice.