SUCCESSFUL fire prevention campaigns have had a major impact in reducing the number of blaze calls and false alarms in Greater Manchester.

The encouraging news is contained in the County Fire Service's performance figures for 1998-99, which have just been published.

They show that the number of calls to fires has substantially reduced. In 1998-99 the figure was 24,650 compared to the previous year's figure of 29,950.

The number of "fires", which turned out to be false alarms, was 25,617 - compared to 28,759 for 1997-98. And the number of other incidents also fell, from 7,445 to 6,410.

However, the number of fire rescues increased, from 188 in 1997-98 to the latest figure of 271.

Other statistics show that there were 6,489 malicious false alarm incidents, 14,892 false alarms due to apparatus and 4,236 false alarms with good intent.

County Fire Officer George Almond said: "This is a positive result for the brigade and fully justifies the extra resources put into educating the public on the risks from fire.

"Prevention is the way forward and as a brigade we would far rather a fire didn't occur in the first place than have to attend an incident where lives and property have been destroyed." He added: "The brigade recently introduced a three-year community fire safety plan which aims to build on this success."

Fire Authority chairman, Councillor Fred Walker said: "I am delighted that the hard work put into community fire safety has produced such positive results. The authority has performed extremely well over the last 12 months, showing an improvement in six of the seven quantitative indicators."

The main indicators of performance are attendance figures showing the number of occasions the fire service has provided the correct number of fire engines within a given time.

The Home Office says the attendance standards must be met on 75 per cent of occasions.

The brigade has achieved attendance standards on 95 per cent of occasions during 1998-99, a testimony to the way in which fire cover requirements in the county are continually monitored and assessed.

The Greater Manchester performance indicators also show the average time taken to carry out fire safety inspections is 74 days and the net expenditure per head of population in the fire service for 1998-99 is £30.94p.

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