Scotland Launches Fire Awareness Campaign

Scotland is launching a major campaign on fire awareness amid fears that increasing numbers of people will be drinking and smoking at home now that smoking is banned in public places.

A recent report by the Scottish fire services revealed that matches and cigarettes started 46 per cent of all house fires in the country between 2003 and 2005.

Ten people in Glasgow alone died because of smoking related fires in 2004/05, which left dozens more injured and a home insurance bill of more than £7 million.

Home insurance companies have backed the campaign and are supporting a new campaign to install sprinklers in all new homes.

"The council now has a deliberate policy of having sprinklers in all our new schools because in the event of a fire, instead of losing a whole school, we may just lose a classroom," a local councillor.

"Now we want to take things to the next stage and are going to start discussions with the construction industry and ask them to put sprinklers into all new build houses.”

"That would save a lot of lives and a lot of property and a lot of the cost would be offset by a reduction in household insurance bills," he added.

Now that smoke alarms are a feature of every home, the next step in improving safety is to have sprinklers installed. The Fire brigade believes every new house should have a sprinkler system and that systems which can be fitted in existing homes should be made cheaper.

Fire chiefs are known to be angry at adverts which show sprinkler systems virtually flooding properties when activated. The spokesman said: "It is a myth sprinkler systems flood the house because only the sprinkler head nearest the fire will go off."

"Sprinklers save lives and would go a long way to solving the very bad record of fire deaths in Glasgow and Strathclyde."

Chip pan fires are still a major problem in the city, but the spokesman said even a blazing chip pan would be extinguished by a sprinkler.

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