Fires across Ealing have dropped by 24% over the last five years, according to the latest figures by the London Fire Brigade.

The statistics, released on Monday (June 1), show that last year the number of fires in Ealing was 653, around 12 a week.

In 2010/11, crews attended 856 or around 16 a week.

The statistics for the whole of London show that last year - for the first time since records began in 1966 - there were fewer than 20,000 fires in a 12-month period.

Despite the downward trend, fire chiefs are urging people not to take their eye off the ball when it comes to fire safety.

The Brigade wants everyone to make sure they have at least one working smoke alarm on every level of their home and test them regularly.

Other Ealing statistics show in the last five years that the number of special services (which includes flooding, animal rescues and road traffic collisions) has fallen to 848 incidents, down 22%, while false alarms have fallen to 1,421, down 18%.

Sean Bennett, London Fire Brigade’s borough commander for Ealing, said: “The figures are a credit to firefighters, fire engineers, fire investigators, community safety specialists and many other staff who have made huge progress in educating people about the importance of fire safety.

“We have worked incredibly hard with our partners in the borough to work on reducing the number of fires we attend and will continue to target those most at risk to prevent deaths and serious injuries.”