Home fire safety checksten years on

摘要

Home fire safety checks, once the preserve of a few pioneering fire and rescue services have, since the early 2000s, become a standard and core part of the UK's community fire safety activity. Millions of homes have benefited from fire safety checks and free smoke alarms. Over this period the number of fire deaths in the home has fallen to a historically low level. These two points are thought to be connected. However, some stakeholders have expressed concern about the amount of time committed to home safety checks. Also, with pending reductions in FRS budgets the need to ensure that resources are being used to best effect is perhaps greater than ever. Therefore, it is timely to revisit the evidence for home fire safety checks (HFSCs), especially with the recent publication of a 2010 evaluation of home safety checks in Wales and a 2012 update on the profile of dwelling fire deaths completed by Greenstreet Berman Ltd for the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).