The Fire and Rescue Service is continually improving its capacity to respond to emergencies but more and more attention is now being paid to warding off disaster in the first place.
East Hampshire's group manager Dave Lock said: "Everyone thinks the fire service responds to incidents and that's all they do," he said. "In the last few years we have been trying to increase the number of ways we can prevent fires and prevent anti-social behaviour which will lead to arson.
"People don't want us to just turn up when there's an incident, they want us to try and stop these incidents in the first place."
Through carrying out home safety checks, giving talks to schools, reaching voluntary groups and co-operating with the police to reduce car accidents the service is working hard to deliver a message of safety to the community.
And it appears the message is filtering through. In 2006/07 the number of primary fires (fires in a property – home, office or car), secondary fires (fires in open land or bins) and chimney fires all dropped on the previous year saving fire service resources, community property and putting fewer lives at risk.
Mr Lock added: "We have always reviewed the way we respond and the way we deal with incidents because of improvements in equipment and technology.
"But we have now started to improve the way we deliver our message to protect people and prevent fires."
However, when the worst does happen East Hampshire's fire fighters are well capable of responding speedily and effectively.
All six stations in the district work a retained duty system, meaning the fire fighters there have full time jobs that they must be able to abandon the moment a call is made.
In Petersfield there are 24 retained fire fighters who must be able to get to the station, on Swan Street, within four minutes of the alarm and form up into crews of four to six.
The engines must be on the road and heading to the incident less than five minutes after the call is received.
All but one of the engines at the six stations – Horndean, Petersfield, Alton, Bordon, Liphook and Grayshott – have an average exit time of less than five minutes, while in some places the average is below four minutes.
Although they work normal shifts the retained crews are every bit as proficient as their full time equivalents.
After an initial 12-day course of basic training the firefighters are developed over years, picking up experience and new skills. Some even act as mobile first aiders and can administer vital medical assistance if they reach an incident before an ambulance.
"They are being continually trained," said Mr Lock. "If you saw an incident you would see retained fire fighters and wholetime fire fighters working together and you would not notice the difference." More retained fire fighters are always needed, and there are particular shortages in Bordon and Grayshott.
The position is paid, with wages increasing with the number of incidents attended.
"A lot of people want to put something back into the community by keeping people safe," he said.
"The retained fire fighters all live and work within four minutes of the station and safeguard the town they live in. They have an interest in making sure the community they live in remains safe."
For more information about fire safety or becoming a retained fire fighter log on to: www.hantsfire.gov