People in the North East urged to test their smoke alarms
County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue say they offer free home fire safety check visits
People across County Durham and Darlington are being urged to fit smoke alarms and to remember to check them regularly.
It comes as new figures show five percent in the North East never check theirs.
Experts are warning that not maintaining a detection system in the home is putting lives at risk, as new figures show the number of accidental house fires in England has risen 4.4% in the last year, despite decades of falling numbers.
Electrical Safety First says four million adults, or 7% of people they surveyed, admitted to never testing their smoke alarms, which means millions of homes and families could be at risk if a fire breaks out.
Billy McAloon, station manager for the Darlington district at County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service, said: "Smoke alarms saves lives ultimately. If you do have smoke alarms in your home, we encourage people to check them but they are there to save your life. They're the first port of call should a fire break out in your home and when we're dealing with fires, every second does count. It's really important that you're alerted as soon as possible.
"The majority of the time smoke alarms do go off during the day with cooking fumes and things like that. But ultimately that time of the night where if they were ever to go off, that's a time when a lot of people panic and it's lifesaving the amount of seconds that a smoke alarm does save.
"The last thing we need is somebody not testing their smoke alarm and unfortunately a fire engine arriving at that property due to an incident and a life could have been saved if you had tested that alarm."
The fire service deliver home checks offering to test and install smoke alarms where needed.
Billy added: "We will have a chat with the homeowner, we walk around their home, we look for the most common hazards that we see and we have discussions around how to be safer but also, we discuss what to do if a fire was to occur so we'll discuss escape behaviour during a fire and who to contact.
"It's reassuring for some of the more elderly residents within our community. We have those conversations with them and we explain what to do if that were to ever happen. but also for those small moments we're company for some people. Having access to someone's property, to have those discussions and have those chats, it may be the first time that they've spoken to somebody that day."
How often should you test your smoke alarm?
The charity recommends households test their smoke alarms at least once every month and that households take just a few seconds to build this into their routine at home.
Yet despite this, further research by the charity reveals:
- Only 22% of Brits test once a month
- 39% of Brits are testing their smoke alarm less often...
- ...including 1 in 10 who test their smoke alarm once a year or less.
Whilst experts raise serious concerns about the infrequent testing of smoke alarms across the country, households are being warned their life could be at risk if they are missing an alarm in their home altogether.
Giuseppe Capanna, product safety engineer at Electrical Safety First told us: “Every second counts when it comes to escaping a fire in your home and smoke alarms can be the life-saving gadget that proves to be the difference between life and death.
'Fires don't discriminate'
"But they need to be maintained to ensure they operate properly.
“Fires don’t discriminate,” Giuseppe Capanna adds. “Many people affected by fire often tell us they simply didn’t think something like this could happen to them, which is why it’s so important households take just a few seconds to test their smoke alarm. It’s also vital you consider if you have enough of them in your home.
"Make sure alarms are positioned in areas across your home where a fire could start and that you have at least one on every floor of your property. The more alarms you have, the earlier your warning will be depending on where in your home a fire starts.”
Find out more about the 4.4% increase in house fires and the reasons behind the rise
Read about the work of Electrical Safety First
Enter the details of your home into this free online safety tool, that will alert you to actions required to make your home fire safe.