False alarms accounted for more than half of Scottish Fire and Rescue Service activities in North Ayrshire.
That was the message from Ian McMeekin, local senior officer revealed at the police and fire and rescue committee last Tuesday.
There were 1,330 false alarms (56 per cent) between April and December of last year, which is four per cent up on the same period a year ago.
There were 86 accidental house fires in North Ayrshire from April to December, which is down 23 per cent year on year and a reduction of nine per cent from three years ago and down five per cent from the same period five years ago.
From April to December, there were five fire casualties, one of whom died in the North Coast area.
But the overall number of blazes, primary and secondary during the same period, stands at 58, which is down 26 per cent.
There were 86 accidental dwelling fires in North Ayrshire from April to December, which is down 23 per cent year on year and a reduction of nine per cent from three years ago and down five per cent from the same period five years ago.
Incidents of deliberate fire setting in North Ayrshire have gone down by eight per cent between April and December, compared to the same period a year ago, fire chiefs have revealed.
In the April to December period, there were 406 deliberate fires in North Ayrshire.
The overall figure is down 15 per cent from 476 in 2021/22, down eight-per cent on the three-year average and five per cent on the five-year average.
The worst area affected was Saltcoats and Stevenston with 98. Kilbirnie and Beith had 70, while Irvine East had 58 and Irvine West 53.
There were 46 incidents in Ardrossan and Arran and 44 in Kilwinning. Irvine South had just 26 and North Coast and Cumbraes 11. Dalry and West Kilbride had no incidents.
The fire-raising issue ssue is being addressed.
David Wilson, local authority liaison officer for the North Ayrshire area, said: “We contacted Police Scotland and set up a meeting with North Ayrshire Council street scene to tackle the issue.
"We also sent out school police campus officers a powerpoint presentations and a few youth groups had a presentation and we gradually saw a reduction in incidents.
"The feedback we were getting is that teenagers were carrying out fire-related incidents in Ardeer and the peak time was September.
“We saw a reduction in fires of about 70 per cent in October and about the same in November and December.”
The number of special services attended were 381 - up 14 per cent on last year.
Ayr community fire station in South Ayrshire was identified as being the top performing community fire station within the whole time duty system category; with Dalry being recognised as being the best achieving community fire station within the on-call duty system group.
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