The number of fires in Merton has decreased over the last five years according to figures released by the London Fire Brigade this week.

Last year the number of fires in Merton was 372, around seven a week. In 2010/11 crews attended 568 or about 11 a week - a drop of 34 per cent over the last five years.

The news will be of little comfort to people like Jeremy Clubb and Dennis Issory who are re-building their lives after blazes devastated their homes in Morden and Mitcham respectively.

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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 to not take their eye off the ball when it comes to fire safety.

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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.

Julian Spooner, London Fire Brigade’s borough commander for Merton, 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."

Other statistics show in the last five years the number of special services, which includes flooding, animal rescues and road traffic collisions, has fallen to 445 incidents, down 15 per cent and false alarm call-outs have fallen to 769, down 14 per cent.