FIRE officers are striving to educate young people about the dangers of starting fires after an increase in the number of malicious blazes in Country Durham.

Since last year, there has been a 22 per cent increase in malicious fires in the county, with a total of 784 recorded.

The increase has been blamed on the hot summer weather, which it is believed encouraged young people to start fires, some of which then got out of control.

Chief fire officer George Herbert said: "These periods will always cause an increase in both malicious and deliberate and secondary fires.

"Community Fire Safety will continue to target schools as a method of dissuading children from starting such fires."

The figures have been published as part of the County Durham and Darlington performance indicators for the year.

The figures also showed an increase in the number of injuries from accidental house fires, even though the number of house fires has fallen.

Mr Herbert said this could be because many fires occurred in homes where more than one person lived, so more people were likely to be affected by smoke inhalation or heat.

He said there should be an emphasis on keeping people safe when there was a fire, as well as prevention advice.

To help people reach safety as soon as possible, more than 1,100 smoke alarms were issued by the fire service last year, with 361 of them fitted by fire service staff in the homes of elderly or disabled people.

Mr Herbert said: "The number of home safety checks continue to increase as the brigade's pro-active approach to community safety develops.

"Due to recent fatalities at fires, stations have targeted areas and campaigns have been carried out to reduce fires in the home. There is also an increase in the number of smoke alarms within private dwellings."

Despite an increase in the number of calls taken by fire control staff, the time taken to answer the calls has fallen.

On average, calls to the Durham fire service take just under 40 seconds to answer, compared with 41 seconds last year.