Fire crews in Oxfordshire will no longer attend call-outs to automatic fire alarms unless a blaze is confirmed.

Last year, the Oxfordshire fire service attended 3,961 false calls caused by automatic fire alarms.

The alarms involved are fire and smoke detectors used by large businesses, many of which are linked to the local fire station. The move will not affect firefighters attending homes where smoke alarms have been activated.

Until recently, the Oxfordshire fire service always attended all automatic alarm calls, even if it was clear the alarm had not been activated by an emergency.

Members of the executive board gave fire chiefs offical backing on June 10 to ignore false alarms.

Four months ago Oxfordshire fire service stopped attending automatic alarms unless a fire was confirmed.

During the trial, from January 1 to March 30 this year, the brigade only turned out to 333 false alarms.

The brigade said all alarms due to genuine fires were confirmed very quickly.

Nationally 50 per cent of false alarms are from hospital premises -- many caused by toasters. John Parry, the county's chief fire officer, said: "The benefits are immense. Local employers will not lose retained firefighters for nearly as much time and they will experience much reduced disruption all round.

"Full-time firefighters will be able to spend much more time on community safety initiatives and there will be a reduction in the number of emergency vehicle movements meaning reduced risks to firefighters, pedestrians and other road users."