NSW fire safety compliance statistics

Official figures on automatic fire alarm responses and building fire incidents in NSW, drawn from Fire and Rescue NSW published data and open data statistics.

Fire and Rescue NSW publishes operational response data and guidance on its public website. This page draws directly from those published sources and the FRNSW open data annual CSV for 2024. The figures describe the scale and composition of FRNSW's emergency workload: they do not represent compliance rates or inspection outcomes, which no NSW authority publishes in aggregate form.

Automatic fire alarms in the response workload

Automatic fire alarm (AFA) systems are essential fire safety measures. They appear on the fire safety schedule of most commercial, strata and mixed-use buildings in NSW, and annual AFSS certification requires that an accredited practitioner verifies each one performs to its designed standard. Fire and Rescue NSW publishes that around 40 per cent of all FRNSW emergency responses are to AFA activations.

For 2025, FRNSW published a total of approximately 58,000 AFA activations attended, with approximately 98 per cent of those activations being unwanted, meaning FRNSW attended and found no actual fire or emergency present. The FRNSW annual open data CSV for 2024 records 52,089 AFA callouts in that calendar year, out of 142,598 total emergency incidents. Actual fire responses in 2024 numbered 30,043. AFA activations were the largest single category of FRNSW emergency responses in 2024, exceeding fire incident responses by roughly 73 per cent.

The FRNSW false alarm charge

FRNSW charges the building owner or occupier $1,656 for each unwanted AFA attendance. One false alarm within a 60-day window is not charged; repeat activations within 24 hours of a charged event are also not charged. Beyond those concessions, each unnecessary attendance incurs the fee. The charge applies statewide.

For buildings with poorly maintained or faulty AFA systems, the annual cumulative cost of false alarm charges can be significant. The essential fire safety measure maintenance requirements that underpin the AFSS process are designed to reduce this risk: regular practitioner assessment and rectification reduce the likelihood that a system activates without cause.

Fire incident volumes

The FRNSW 2024 annual open data CSV records 30,043 fire-related incident responses across NSW in that calendar year. This encompasses residential, commercial and industrial fire responses. FRNSW does not publish a breakdown of fire incidents by building class or by whether the affected building held a current annual fire safety statement at the time.

What the data does not cover

No NSW authority publishes aggregate data on AFSS compliance rates, the number of buildings with a current statement versus those in default, or the total count of fire safety orders issued statewide in a given period. Information about individual enforcement actions is available through council open data portals and occasional government releases, but there is no central AFSS compliance dataset comparable to FRNSW's operational statistics.

For council late-lodgement penalty structures, the AFSS deadlines and penalties guide summarises the City of Sydney's published schedule and the maximum Land and Environment Court penalty.

About these figures

The AFA response volumes and unwanted-activation rate for 2025 are published on the FRNSW automatic fire alarms guidance page. The 2024 incident totals (52,089 AFA responses, 30,043 fire incidents, 142,598 total incidents) were computed by summing the 2024 rows in the FRNSW annual open data CSV, which is publicly available from the FRNSW open data portal. All figures were retrieved in July 2026.

A note on the cross-period estimate: applying the 2025 unwanted-activation rate of approximately 98 per cent to the 2024 AFA total of 52,089 would imply roughly 51,000 unnecessary FRNSW callouts in 2024. This is a derived estimate, not a figure FRNSW publishes directly, and should be read as indicative. The two data points are from adjacent but separate reporting periods; FRNSW does not publish the unwanted-activation rate separately for 2024.

Sources

• Fire and Rescue NSW, automatic fire alarms (AFA response volumes, unwanted-activation rate, false alarm charge; retrieved July 2026).
• Fire and Rescue NSW, daily operational statistics (open data portal) (2024 annual CSV; figures computed from raw data).

This is general information, not legal or compliance advice. Check requirements and figures with your council and the FPAA register.

More guides

• AFSS compliance checklistThe steps to keep a NSW building's annual fire safety statement on time and valid, in order.
• AFSS cost guide: what drives the priceWhat Sydney providers publish for AFSS certification fees, what drives the price up or down, and why a quote without your schedule is a guess.
• New to owning a building? Your first AFSSIf you have just taken on an existing building, here is what the annual fire safety obligation means for you.
• Accredited practitioner vs competent fire safety practitioner in NSWBoth terms refer to the same specialist role in NSW. The name changed on 1 July 2020. Here is what each means and which one you need for your annual fire safety statement today.
• Fire safety schedule vs AFSS: what is the difference?The schedule is the list of measures a building must have. The AFSS is the yearly proof those measures still work. Here is how the two documents connect.
• AFSS penalties and non-complianceThe dollar figures for an overdue annual fire safety statement in NSW: council penalty notices, fire safety orders, court proceedings and what to do next.
• AFSS vs supplementary fire safety statement: what's the differenceTwo different statements cover two different categories of fire safety measure in NSW. Here is what separates them, when a supplementary statement applies, and what to do if your schedule lists a critical measure.
• Fire safety upgrade order NSW: existing building fire upgradesWhat triggers a council fire safety upgrade order on an existing NSW building, the notice process, and your appeal window.
• Fire safety order at property sale: what buyers, sellers and conveyancers need to knowAn outstanding fire safety order does not disappear when a NSW building changes hands. It binds whoever owns the building next under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, appears on the property's Section 10.7 planning certificate, and is one of the first things a buyer's solicitor will flag before exchange. Here is what it means from every side of the transaction.
• Not the site you meant? Similar-named AFSS sites explainedThree NSW fire safety businesses have very similar names. Here is what each one actually is, so you land on the site you were looking for.