Arson attacks fall by more than half

But South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue’s chief fire officer Jamie Courtney yesterday warned that the record-breaking figures could be hampered by “unfair” Government spending cuts. Figures show that the number of accidental house fires fell in 2011-12 to 618, from 647 the previous year and down from more than 1,000 eight years ago.

The number of car crashes attended by the service was down to an all-time low of 387, while the number of hoax calls attended was also the lowest total ever, at 80.

But Mr Courtney said yesterday: “These figures represent another excellent year’s work.

“However, metropolitan fire services like ours were hit hard by the cuts. The second round of cuts will be announced in December.

“I am genuinely concerned that if the cuts fall unfairly on services like South Yorkshire again, the result will be the closure of fire stations and longer response times.

“The risk to local communities will increase.”