A DHC8-300 had an intermittent SMOKE warning indicating smoke in the cargo area. The Flight Attendant inspected and found the warning to be false. The flight continued to its planned destination.

Narrative

Reaching 12;000 FT and leveling-off; we observed an intermittent SMOKE warning light. Our SMOKE warning indicates presence of smoke in the cargo compartment. Light flashed two or three times over five seconds. It was not steady-state. It was not continuous. It remained extinguished. Flight crew initiated checklist. The procedure instructs the Flight Attendant to locate and fight/extinguish the threat. I was aware our pilots have experienced previous false SMOKE indicators. I did instruct the Flight Attendant to inspect the cargo area for smoke or fire. Our Dash 8-300 does have an accessible cargo area through which the Flight Attendant would engage the threat. I was communicating with the Flight Attendant on the rear cabin interphone while the cargo area was physically inspected. The Flight Attendant reported no evidence of smoke or fire. I suspected a false indicator was the cause of the warning. I know other triggers; such as dust; can activate aircraft smoke detectors. I did not have reason to believe the integrity of the cargo smoke detection system had been compromised. I discussed the situation with the First Officer and we were confident there was not smoke or fire in the cargo area. We contacted Dispatch and Maintenance Control on the radio and described the situation. Maintenance Control gave us discretion to continue if we were confident smoke or fire did not exist. We no longer had an annunciator warning. We had positive physical confirmation there was not smoke or fire. We were 100% confident there was not a threat. We elected to continue. The flight was completed uneventfully. Maintenance discrepancy was written up upon termination of the flight. My reason for submitting this report is that I did not land immediately per the final item on the checklist. At the time; I did not feel an immediate emergency landing would have been the safest course of action. Our manual gives the crew discretion to discontinue the checklist if they threat is eliminated. My crew used our experience; exhausted all available resources; communicated effectively; and I made a command decision to continue. Every consideration and action taken was in the interest of safety; and in my view safety was never compromised.