House fire claims data released by RACQ Insurance in July 2026 provides a Queensland-specific view of residential fire risk – and, read alongside national fire authority statistics and regulatory findings, points to two structural issues with direct implications for how the broader market prices and manages home insurance: the escalation of lithium-ion battery fires driven by e-mobility devices, and a deepening underinsurance gap.
RACQ Insurance recorded 469 house fire claims across Queensland during 2024 and 2025. These figures represent one insurer’s Queensland book and are not an industry-wide measure, which is a material caveat for any underwriter seeking to benchmark portfolio performance against them. Regional Queensland accounted for 31% of those claims, with a seasonal spike identified in July.
Mechanical or electrical faults were the leading cause of house fire claims at 146 incidents, followed by cooking appliances (42), candles or incense (28), and gas BBQs (16). RACQ Insurance chief executive Trent Sayers flagged lithium-ion devices as a growing risk category alongside those established causes. “Overcharging or faulty lithium-ion batteries can also spark dangerous fires, which is why devices should never be left unattended. Households should use manufacturer-approved chargers and avoid mixing and matching devices and cables,” Sayers said.
Fire authority data confirms the national trajectory. Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell, in a statement published by the NSW Environment Protection Authority in February 2025, said: “We had at least 318 lithium-ion battery fires in NSW last year. That’s well up on the 272 of 2023 and 165 of 2022. We know they are on the rise, but people are still taking dangerous risks in their homes.” By late November 2025, FRNSW had responded to its 100th e-mobility battery fire for the calendar year, when a lithium-ion battery belonging to an e-bike ignited a fast-moving blaze in a two-storey Redfern terrace. The FRNSW SARET research program confirmed that FRNSW recorded its first fatalities from a lithium-ion battery fire, with two deaths in 2024 and one in 2025.
The pattern holds across state boundaries. In South Australia, Metropolitan Fire Service callouts to lithium-ion battery fires have increased nearly tenfold over five years, with e-bikes and e-scooters the leading cause. In the first half of 2025, the MFS had already responded to more than half of the prior year’s total related cases. Behavioural factors will sustain this risk even as product safety standards tighten. A NSW government survey found that while 44% of people understand the risks associated with lithium-ion battery products, 73% still charge devices while unattended, 70% charge batteries near living spaces or exits, 64% leave devices plugged in after fully charged, and 51% use low-quality chargers or batteries. Regulatory responses continue to develop: mandatory testing and certification requirements for e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards, and hoverboards came into effect in August 2025, with mandatory labelling requirements following in February 2026.
Among regional Queensland locations, Bundaberg recorded 21 RACQ Insurance claims over the two-year period against a regional average of three. Rockhampton followed with 10, Mackay with eight, Yeppoon with seven, and North Toowoomba with six. Bundaberg’s figure is seven times the regional average and warrants scrutiny from insurers with regional Queensland residential exposure. The RACQ Insurance data does not identify a cause – building stock age, socioeconomic profile, population density, and claims-reporting patterns are all plausible contributors. The Queensland Fire Department publishes an annual extract of incidents attended by its personnel via the Queensland Government Open Data Portal, which would allow an independent comparison of insurance claims frequency against actual fire incident frequency by location. That analysis would distinguish genuine risk concentration from market share artefact – a distinction material to pricing decisions.
Sayers urged policyholders to confirm their cover remains adequate. “We also encourage homeowners to review their insurance coverage and make sure their sum insured is enough to rebuild their home and replace their contents if they are destroyed,” he said.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s (APRA) Mind the Gap Insurance Climate Vulnerability Assessment (Insurance CVA), published in March 2026, found that around one in seven Australian households are currently uninsured, and estimated this could rise to approximately one in four by 2050 under plausible climate stress scenarios – equivalent to an additional one million homes without adequate cover. The affordability driver is quantified: between 2010 and 2025, Australian home insurance premiums rose at an average annual rate of 7.2%, while wages grew at 3.1% annually. Australia Institute polling in 2025 estimated approximately 1.4 million homes were either uninsured or underinsured, while quantity surveyor firm MCG estimated that a substantial portion of Australia’s 11.4 million residential dwellings may now be underinsured following years of construction cost inflation, with many policyholders relying on outdated rebuild estimates.
For brokers and advisers with residential clients in regional Queensland – where RACQ Insurance’s data places fire claim frequency well above the state average on a per-location basis – the convergence of elevated battery risk, seasonal fire frequency, and a structurally wide underinsurance gap makes sum-insured reviews at renewal a practical priority rather than a routine formality.
