Method for detecting fires in railway vehicles. For detecting fires reliably and with a reduced error rate, it is proposed that compartment air in a railway vehicle be sucked in by means of at least two suctioning devices operated separately from one another, each in a monitoring region, that the monitoring parameter of the compartment air sucked in be evaluated in the suctioning devices and that a first control signal be output on detection of a monitoring parameter threshold value in at least one suctioning device.