A firefighter tries to remove a fallen tree off the road as the tree blocked the tranffic on June 25, 2014, in Ziyang, southwest China's Sichuan province. [Photo/IC]

But over 20-percent of the calls were for social assistance cases like opening doors, rescuing animals, destroying hornet's nests etc.

Some 18 percent of calls were for small fires on lawns, which according to firefighters, could be doused with a few buckets of water.

"It is a big waste of time and money when we drive for kilometers to put out a minor fire," said one of the firefighters in Changzhou.

Overall only a quarter of the firefighters' time was spent on putting out fires.