West Yorkshire Fire Service is stepping up its campaign to fit smoke alarms in an effort to cut the number of fire-related deaths in the home.

More than £43,000 is being set aside to increase the installation of domestic smoke alarms in 1999/2000 by approximately a third - to 24,000.

A further £20,000 will be used to maintain the alarms, fund fire education initiatives and pay for safety publicity.

The double cash boost - allocated by the West Yorkshire Fire & Civil Defence Authority - will bring the brigade a step nearer to its goal of a smoke alarm in every home in the county.

Locally, firefighters in Bradford have been spreading the community fire safety message through neighbourhood watch co-ordinators.

And individual fire stations across the district carry out Home Risk Fire Assessments (HFRAs) on scores of properties each week. Each home is given a risk rating and, depending on the dangers, firefighters can install smoke alarms free of charge. The initiative has already saved lives.

In July this year pensioner Pauline March, 70, was rescued after a neighbour heard a smoke alarm sounding in her flat in Bolton Woods, Shipley.

The detector had been fitted just two days earlier by members of Blue Watch at Shipley Fire Station.

The fire was contained in the kitchen. Although she required hospital treatment for smoke inhalation, firefighters say Mrs March survived the ordeal because of the smoke alarm.

In a report to the West Yorkshire Fire & Civil Defence Authority, committee members are told: "Between January and September this year more than 8,000 HFRAs have been carried out in the county - with emphasis on vulnerable groups such as the elderly.

"More than 12,000 smoke detectors have been installed in homes which did not have adequate provision and a further 1,000 replacement batteries have been installed.

"Smoke alarm ownership currently stands at 35 per cent. An alarm in every home in West Yorkshire, coupled with good fire safety precautions, is the goal sought."

T&A Opinion

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.