FIREFIGHTERS in Hampshire took more than half a minute longer to reach the most serious fires last year than they did five years ago, new figures show.

The Fire Brigades Union warns that a matter of seconds “could be the difference between life and death,” blaming financial cuts for rising response times across England.

Home Office data reveals that the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service took an average of nine minutes and 11 seconds to reach primary fires in 2018-19.

That means firefighters took 42 seconds longer to reach the scene last year than in 2013-14, while the average response time was up by 27 seconds from 2017-18.

Primary fires are the most serious, with the potential to harm people or damage property.

Total response times for England’s fire and rescue services are measured by the time elapsed between the first call and the arrival of the first vehicle to the incident.

In Hampshire, during 2018-19, call handling took an average of one minute and 34 seconds, while crew turnout took around one ​minute and 32 seconds.

Driving to the scene took up most of the response time, with the average journey to primary fires taking six​ minutes and ​​five seconds – 42 seconds longer than in 2013-14.

Nationally, the average response time to primary fires in 2018-19 was eight minutes and 49 seconds – increasing by 33 seconds since 2013-14.

The Home Office said it was “caused by the increase in average drive time,” adding that slower responses to primary fires could be down to more traffic and control room staff asking more questions to better assess the attendance needed.

However, Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, says cuts have had a “staggering” impact on response times: “In a fire, a matter of seconds could be the difference between life and death, so these figures are incredibly alarming. Services have been cut to the bone, and it’s obvious that with fewer firefighters and scarcer resources, firefighters are taking longer to get to fires, putting lives and businesses at risk.

“This is just part of the picture. Many services are not properly crewing engines, so there’s no guarantee there will be a safe number of firefighters on board when it arrives.

“The slowing of response times has been gradual, but the impact over a number of years is staggering. The government urgently needs to invest in our services and, crucially, we need national standards to set a required response time. Every second counts.”

A landmark recent report by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Fire and Rescue Services said there is “undesirable” variation between how services across England respond to incidents.

The report calls on politicians, fire and rescue authorities and trade unions to make “bold, long-term decisions” to bring “significant reform” to the sector.

Hampshire’s assistant chief fire officer Stew Adamson said: “Our response figures for April 2018 to March 2019 show that on average we arrive at all critical response incidents within eight minutes and 46 seconds, faster than the national average.

“Response times fluctuate for various reasons which you’d expect in a county with both urban and rural areas, these include incident location, appliance availability and the time of day or year etc. We continue to work to reduce our response times for both wholetime and on-call stations and remain above the national average.”