Communities and Local Government
A selection of images representing communities.
Direct contact 020 7944 4400- contactus@communities.gov.uk
- Fire and resilience
- About fire and resilience
- Community fire safety
Community fire safety
Every year there are more than 50,000 accidental house fires in the UK resulting in around 300 deaths and 11,000 people injured.
Communities and Local Government aims to reduce the level of damage, injury and death caused by fires by working closely with the fire and rescue service and supporting its ongoing modernisation. We are providing a lead to drive the continuing improvement of the service in taking on a wider role, focusing more on fire prevention and protecting the public from a range of risks, like road accidents, floods and other civil emergencies.
Fire Kills
We support the key national safety campaign Fire Kills. Its aim is to develop a long-term national fire safety strategy based three main themes. They are:
- prevention
- detection
- escape
Fire Kills has already run a number of advertising campaigns such as:
- Push the button - reminding people to check their smoke alarm batteries as part of their regular household routines. This follows research which showed more homes have smoke alarms, but many have failed to operate during fires because the battery was flat
- Put it Out, Right Out - promoting fire safety messages related to smoking. This campaign reduced smoking-related fire deaths by a fifth in 2004
The campaign plans to focus more on smoking-related fire deaths. The smoking ban in pubs and clubs from spring 2007 gives added emphasis.
There will also be a drive to reach certain groups which are at risk due to things like hearing disabilities, language barriers or cultural practices like cooking methods or using candles for festivities.
