THE proportion of women applying to become firefighters has almost doubled after a recruitment campaign targeting females.

Only 31 out of 711 people who applied to North Yorkshire Fire Brigade last year were women -4.4 per cent.

This year, 53 out of 626, or 8.5 per cent, of applications were from women.

The statistics are in a report that will go before a meeting of the brigade's authority next week.

The report said: "This is the result of the recruitment campaign that actively encouraged women applicants through use of targeted advertising and local recruitment events."

Other figures show the number of arson attacks and accidental fires in the county has fallen.

The report says there were 323 deliberate fires in the 12 months to the end of October, against a target of 440.

All areas saw a reduction in arson apart from Hambleton, where cars, farm buildings and straw bales accounted for most blazes.

The report said: "A youth thought to be responsible for a number of these incidents has been arrested as a result of crews working with the police."

There were 602 accidental fires, compared with a target of 624.

Hambleton again bucked the overall trend in vehicle fires, experiencing the largest increase in the county, with 40 per cent of such blazes being vehicle fires.

Many of these were caused by agricultural vehicles overheating or causing fires in the hot weather in July.

The number of working days lost to sickness among uniformed staff equated to 5.02 days per person, an 8.2 per cent fall on last year's figures.

The total cost of ill health absence for the period until November 12 was £315,665.