THE number of accidental house fires halved in South and West Fife in the last year.

The figures for April 2023 to March this year showed a total of 11 blazes had taken place compared to 23 the previous year.

Thankfully, there were no fatalities in the reporting time while there were two casualties recorded, down from eight in 2022/23.

Most of the accidental house fires took place between 4pm and 8pm, mostly having started in the kitchen, and due to distraction.

From these, half of the addresses had a detection system and 40 per cent of those operated and raised the alarm. There were 60 per cent which were working but did not raise the alarm, a report said this was possibly due to the amount of smoke within compartment/floor of origin.

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A total of 63 per cent of the incidents were resolved without firefighting intervention, or by removal from heat source/fuel supply. There were 18 per cent of incidents which required firefighting operations.

The statistics, which were outlined in a report to members of the South and West Fife area committee, also showed that the number of deliberate fires went down by two to 20.

The number of non-domestic building fires was six, a decrease of 24 from the previous year. Most were caused by heat source and combustibles, coming together within educational establishments.

Dunfermline Station commander Craig Robertson said: "Continuous work is still being required to tackle all type of fires, and to plan and prepare for future weather/environmental events.

"It should be noted that almost 50 per cent of accidental dwelling fires did not have any operating detection, although this trend is moving continually downward."