Fight fire with creative education for both landlords and tenants.
When there's a fire, the people ultimately to blame often don't realise they were doing anything dangerous: from tenants who don't know how to use chip pans safely to landlords who don't realise they need to maintain their alarm systems. Education should therefore be at the core of any fire safety campaign – and with the firefighters' strike drawing public attention to fire issues, there's no better time to spread the safety message.

Landlords
Landlords are often ignorant of fire safety issues, particularly the fact that the fire detection and alarm systems they are legally required to fit need to be maintained at least once a year to keep them effective.

Stephen Cowan, deputy for housing at Hammersmith & Fulham council, says: "Most landlords are responsible but they tend to fit alarm systems and then forget about them." The council has a database of landlords and RSLs and offers them free advice on fire safety. One of its new year initiatives is to invite them to the borough's new fire station to talk about fire safety with the fire brigade and electrical contractors. The local Home Improvement Agency also offers a project-managing service for landlords who find it difficult to coordinate the different contractors needed to fit fire safety systems.

Tenants
Residents need help and advice too. In Warrington, for instance, the council's safety drive includes:

  • devoting a page to fire safety in its tenants' handbook
  • regular articles in its tenants' newsletter
  • a leaflet for all new tenants
  • leafleting areas where there's recently been a fire, or where the council and fire service agree there is a high risk.

Sheltered housing residents are a particular target of the campaign and a hotline has been set up for people to call if disabilities make it difficult for them to change the batteries in their smoke alarms. These homes are then made a priority in the council's programme to fit hardwired smoke alarms in all its 10,500 properties.

Be prepared to spend
Warrington council's insurance company and the firm that supplies its smoke alarms are helping the safety drive with a small amount of sponsorship, but there's no getting away from the investment necessary to keep tenants safe.

In Hammersmith & Fulham, from April, landlords will be offered financial help with fitting and maintaining fire detection systems. This is set to be quite expensive as fitting and maintaining a system in a three-storey building converted into bedsits can cost more than £3000 – but again, the money may prevent deaths.

Be imaginative
Leaflets are not the only way to get the message across. Councils and RSLs can also help fire brigade safety initiatives by allowing empty properties to be used for demonstrations.

Many councils run youth projects in partnership with the fire brigade in areas of deprivation and social exclusion. In Warrington, teenagers in trouble spots are given fire awareness training, while fire cadet schemes and outdoor pursuits days get them involved in community projects such as home fire safety checks.

To help combat arson, which causes more than 45% of fires in buildings, the council has enlisted the help of Warrington College's performing arts department. Students put together a play for 10-11-year-olds, showing a "joke" that goes horribly wrong. This is followed by a workshop that helps the audience to think about the consequences of their actions. Steve McGuirk, chief fire officer of Cheshire Fire Service, says: "Research shows that most young people don't see the connection between lighting a match, setting fire to a bin or a hedge, and the chance that a building could be burned down. They don't appear to understand the consequences of arson – in fact, they don't see their actions as arson."

Source

Housing Today