In July last year, All Saints’, Mudeford, in Winchester diocese, was gutted after an electrical fault caused a fire in the building — and now Ecclesiastical Insurance is urging churches to carry out safety checks amid a six-year high in such incidents. New technology can result in old circuitry becoming overloaded, and after a fall in the number of electrical fires during the pandemic, levels have since risen to 2017 levels, the specialist church insurers report