FIREFIGHTERS attended 3,247 fires across Dorset and Wiltshire in 2016/17.

Of the fires, which made up roughly a quarter of Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue's 12,474 call-outs, 919 were deliberately set, including bonfires.

Overall there were six fatalities - five from accidentally started fires. However, the service rescued 59 people from blazes and 231 from damaged vehicles after crashes.

The service has issued its first annual report since it was formed by the amalgamation of the two counties' former services.

In the report, Chief fire officer Ben Ansell and Fire Authority chairman Cllr Spencer Flower said the service was concentrating on preventing fires from starting in the first place.

"Over the past 12 months we attended nearly 12,500 incidents where people needed our urgent help," they state.

"Whilst we will always provide this important service, we continue to do a lot of work to prevent fi res and accidents from happening in the first place.

"Last year we engaged with over 1,000 local businesses and responded to nearly 1,500 building applications, as well as undertaking a large number of fire safety audits.

"We work hard to identify the people likely to have a fire and talk to them about minimising that risk with wide-ranging safety advice and by fitting free smoke alarms.

"Last year we completed over 12,000 safe and well checks, an essential means of reducing the number of fires."

The report does identify some problems faced by the service, in particular, difficulty recruiting on-call firefighters.

It states: "Whilst our availability to respond to the wide range of emergencies that we face is suitable and sufficient in our major conurbations, 85 per cent of our response appliances are crewed by on-call duty system firefighters who are mostly operating in rural areas.

"Attraction, recruitment, retention and therefore availability of our on-call firefighters continues to be a challenge."

The service, the report says, also receives less cash from its council tax precept than average - a Band D precept last year of £69.21 compared to a mean national figure of £73.14.

However, it has made savings of £4 million chiefly through staff changes, including setting up a single control centre, as well as property sharing and changes in procurement and contracts.