HEREFORD and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service has beaten targets in four key areas in the last year.

Based on 19 performance indicators, Hereford and Worcester was third best performing in a league table of fire and rescue services in England. It has been rated `good'.

Successes include reducing deaths in accidental house fires to zero and increasing the number of house fires confined to the room of origin from 89.3 to 92 per cent. The trend is also evident in the number of injuries from such fires, down to 26 per cent, beating a target of 37, which would represent five injuries per 100,000 population.

This reflected the effort put into community safety initiatives, said management information and research officer David Morris in a report presented to the best value, policy and performance committee.

There was also a big reduction in the number of fires deliberately started, from 1,806 in 2004-05 to 1,661 in 2005-06.

More women firefighters were recruited and they now represent 5.02 per cent of operational staff, while the percentage of women in the top five per cent of earners is 4.2 per cent, just missing a 4.5 per cent target.

In seven key areas of performance, the service was just below target in the 2005-06 financial year and two others are in need of improvement.

These are the time taken to process invoices and the number of working days lost through sickness.

Fifty-five per cent of shifts were lost because of long-term sickness.

"The reality is that a small number of employees on long-term sickness, such as recovering from broken bones, can have a serious impact," reported Mr Morris.

The percentage taking retirement because of ill health was 1.27, compared with a target of 0.7.