West Yorkshire Fire Service could become a victim of its own success and lose Government funding.

After seven years of budget reductions fire chiefs were looking forward to some much-needed breathing space with the promise of an increase in spending limits for 1998/99.

But a crucial factor used by ministers in deciding how to share out the windfall relates to the number of call-outs in previous years.

The huge number of incidents attended by West Yorkshire Fire Brigade during the long, hot summer of 1995 is currently worth £1.3million, but a new emphasis on fire prevention means call-outs in the county have fallen dramatically.

In 1995 the brigade attended 31,163 fires, but a glut of grass fires bumped the figure up to an artificial level. A year later there were 22,573 fires - a drop of 27 per cent. A number of successful fire safety initiatives, including the Learn Not Burn campaign in schools and donations of 42,000 free smoke alarms to vulnerable groups such as the elderly and disabled, have also helped to reduce incidents.

Although the 1995 figures will still play a part in the 1998/99 budget they will be dropped from spending calculations for the following year.

Fire Authority chairman, Councillor Lawrence Conlon, has urged ministers to take urgent action as part of the local government spending review to stop the service going into 'financial meltdown'. The only fair way to set targets was to link budgets to the cost of maintaining essential levels of fire service cover, he said.

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