This dataset contains fire risk data for informal settlements in Cape Town, South Africa. The geographic dataset in shapefile format consists of polygons of informal settlements in the City of Cape Town with attributable risk metrics. The risk metrics were calculated from the dwelling outline dataset also available in this collection (available at https://datashare.is.ed.ac.uk/handle/10283/3560). The aerial photography from which the digitised dwelling outlines were produced was captured in February 2018 and thus the shapefile of informal settlement fire risk captured conditions of settlements for February 2018. The dataset is also presented in table format (.xlsx, .pdf, .csv) for use in a non-GIS workspace. This work is supported by IRIS-Fire project of UK (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Grant no.: EP/P029582/1).