There were 1,656 fires in industrial premises in England in 2024/25. On the analysis that produced that figure, it is 24.85% of all workplace fires — the largest single category, ahead of food and drink venues and ahead of retail. Those three sectors together account for more than 60% of workplace fires.

That breakdown comes from System Building Services’ analysis of Home Office datasets FIRE0301 and FIRE0602, published in the International Fire & Safety Journal in December 2025. Home Office fire statistics cover England.

Across all non-dwelling building fires in England in the year to March 2026, electrical distribution was the largest identified source of ignition, at 17%.

That second figure covers all non-dwelling buildings, not industrial premises specifically we are not going to stretch it further than it goes. But the direction is clear enough, and if you run a manufacturing site you already know that most of what you worry about starts with something electrical.

Where electrical fires start

Not usually in dramatic failures. The causes insurers list is mundane and cumulative:

• Loose or faulty connections and poor terminations
• Overloaded circuits
• Incorrect wiring
• Age-related wear
• Damaged equipment and damaged power leads

All of those produce heat before they produce flame. That is the whole basis of thermal imaging, and it is why insurers ask for it.

What a thermographic survey does  and why your insurer wants one

If you are insured with a major commercial insurer, you are probably already required to run one. Aviva’s published loss prevention standard, for example, asks for surveys at every site, covering all equipment, machinery and plant, at least annually, conducted at full load, with completion certificates and written reports. Business-critical equipment gets surveyed more often. Intervals only extend once trending shows no issues.

It is a good requirement, and we are not arguing with it. A trained thermographer with a good camera will find loose connections that no visual inspection would reveal.

What it cannot see

A thermographic survey is a photograph of one afternoon.

The survey looks at the building once a year, at full load, with an engineer standing in front of it. Most of what goes wrong happens on one of the other 364 days.

Three specific gaps:

One. Intermittent faults

A connection that is loose under thermal cycling may be perfectly cool on the day of the survey. A lead that is damaged inside its sheath only shows itself under a particular load. The camera sees the state of the building now it was pointed at it.

Two. Everything that arrives after the survey

The heater somebody brought in from home in November. The extension leads daisy-chained to another extension lead so a contractor could run a fan. The four-way adaptor behind the despatch desk with a kettle, a monitor, a printer and a phone charger on it. None of that was there in March when the thermographer visited, and none of it will be looked at until next March.

Three. Everything on a plug

Surveys concentrate on distribution boards, switchgear, motors and fixed plant  which is where the highest energy sits, and rightly so. Plugged-in equipment scattered across offices, welfare areas, the gatehouse and the floor is exactly the population that changes most often and is inspected least.

What continuous monitoring adds

A smart socket measures electrical activity fifty times a second on whatever is plugged into it. Because it knows what normal looks like for that appliance, it can see when the behaviour changes.

More importantly, it has an electronic fuse. When something starts drawing current it should not, the socket cuts the power and raises an alert  before the physical fuse in the plug blows.

That matters because a physical fuse is a last resort. It operates after a fault has already developed to the point of overcurrent, and it tells nobody. An electronic fuse acts earlier, and it tells your dashboard, which tells a person.

	Annual thermographic survey	Continuous socket monitoring
Coverage	Distribution, switchgear, plant, machinery	Everything on a socket, fused spur or extension lead
Frequency	Once a year, at full load	Fifty readings a second, continuously
Detects	Heat signatures present on the day	Behaviour changes and overcurrent, whenever they occur
Response	A written report and a remedial action list	Cuts power automatically and raises a live alert
New equipment	Not covered until the next survey	Recognised and monitored from the moment it is plugged in

What this does not replace

Being clear about the limits, because this is a safety topic and overselling it would be unforgivable.

• It does not replace your fixed wiring inspection or your electrical installation condition report.
• It does not replace portable appliance testing.
• It does not replace the thermographic survey your insurer asks for, and it does not cover hard-wired plant, switchgear or distribution boards.
• It does not replace detection, suppression or a fire risk assessment.

What it does is cover a population plugged-in equipment that all the above inspect rarely, and cover it all the time rather than once a year.

The part that makes it affordable

Here is what makes this different from most risk mitigation: it pays for itself.

The same sockets that provide the electrical monitoring also find wasted plug power and switch it off automatically  up to a 40% reduction in the energy that goes through them. A smart dual-gang socket is £26, a fused spur £47.50, and the software licence is £21 per device per year. Typical payback across a deployment is under ten months.

Risk mitigation that reduces your operating cost is a rare thing. It is usually the other way round.

Worth asking your broker

Next time you speak to your broker, ask whether continuous electrical monitoring on plugged-in equipment makes any difference to how they view the risk at your site. It is a fair question, and most brokers have not been asked it.

If the answer is that it makes no difference to the premium, at least you will know — and the energy saving stands on its own regardless.

The honest summary

Industrial premises are the largest single category of workplace fire in England on the published analysis, and electrical distribution is the largest identified ignition source in non-dwelling buildings. Your annual thermal survey is a good control, and you should keep it.

But it looks at the building once a year. Everything plugged into a socket change constantly, is inspected rarely, and is exactly where the forgotten heater and the daisy-chained extension lead live.

Watching that population continuously costs less than most people expect, and it happens to cut the electricity bill at the same time.

Frequently asked questions

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How many fires happen in industrial premises?

There were 1,656 fires in industrial premises in England in 2024/25 — 24.85% of workplace fires on that analysis, and the largest single workplace category. The figure comes from System Building Services’ analysis of Home Office datasets FIRE0301 and FIRE0602, published in the International Fire & Safety Journal in December 2025, rather than from a Home Office headline release.

What causes most electrical fires in commercial buildings?

In England, electrical distribution was the largest identified source of ignition in non-dwelling building fires in the year to March 2026, at 17%. The underlying causes insurers list are loose or faulty connections, overloaded circuits, incorrect wiring, age-related wear and damaged equipment or leads.

How often does a thermographic survey have to be done?

Requirements vary by insurer. Aviva’s published loss prevention standard asks for surveys at every site covering all equipment, machinery and plant at least annually, conducted at full load, with more frequent surveys for business-critical equipment. Check your own policy conditions.

What is an electronic fuse in a smart socket?

It is a solid-state protective function inside the socket. It monitors current continuously and cuts power before the physical fuse in the plug blows, sending an alert at the same time. It acts earlier than a physical fuse and, unlike a physical fuse, it tells somebody.

Does electrical monitoring reduce insurance premiums?

That depends entirely on your insurer and your broker, and we would not promise it. It is worth asking the question. The energy saving from the same devices — typically paying back in under ten months — does not depend on the answer.

 

Kee Business Services  ·  km@kbs.team  ·  Manchester, UK  ·  Keeping promises. Keeping costs under control.