Home safety visits

[Music]

A fire service van arrives at Harry's house and the Technician is let in.

Harry - "I'm on my own since I lost my wife. We used to do everything together me and my wife and there's you know it's been some time now. I've had to get used to you know being alone".

Fire Service Technician - "So as a Technician we would go to people's homes and we would just check to see that they're as far as safe as they can be. Harry had limited mobilities, he didn't really leave the property very often".

Harry - "I was amazed because it was free and they brought all sorts of things. They checked my house".

Technician - "Harry has hearing aids he wears during the day. At night time he takes them out which means that he isn't going to hear the smoke alarm".

Harry - "They brought all sorts of things so if I take my hearing aid out at night, it will wake me up if there's a fire. And they brought me a lovely blanket. I was really surprised and it was so nice to have the company which i don't normally get". 

Technician - "We went into the kitchen, he had the cooker which had things that could easily catch fire close to it. We're there to help them and support them in giving them guidance on how they can make themselves safer".

Harry - "It wasn't anything like I expected. They spent that time with me and helped me so much". 

Technician - "It's about them as well, coming up with ways that they can change things or they can make things safer and about just giving that extra guidance that bit of support or the equipment to enable them to be able to do that. It's a lot of us working together". 

Harry - "I'm very pleased. Everything was so thorough. I didn't know they did this it's so good and more people should do it. I was amazed because it was free. It makes me feel like I can play the piano and enjoy doing something I enjoy and feel safer. And I'm just less worried and and I think I sleep a little better now, knowing that I will be safe at night. The fire service have really done something for me and I appreciate that very much".

The Service provides free home fire safety advice to everyone.

It provides visits to eligible customers, which includes:

• checking smoke alarms are set up correctly
• making a fire escape plan and advising on fire risks in the home
• identifying and discussing any further support, and may include fitting specialist fire safety equipment, where required.

All equipment fitting and issuing is assessed on a case-by-case basis and is at the professional discretion of the Service staff member carrying out the visit.

As a public service, we can provide equipment completely free of charge to eligible customers, who are assessed to be the most ‘at risk’ of fire. To be able to deliver this free service to the most vulnerable members of our community, and because of the large number of visits required in our service area, this means that not everyone is eligible for a visit or equipment.

We have determined our eligibility criteria using information gathered from various sources, including the reviewing of personal factors, lifestyle factors and your home environment. We also review incident data and work with partner agencies to help identify those most ‘at risk’.

Our eligibility criteria may be subject to change, to enable us to effectively manage the demand for our service and consider appropriate use of public money and spending so that we can continue to provide a free service to the community.

Whilst we strive to make every home as safe as possible, visiting everyone isn’t achievable and therefore fire safety information is available on our website.

We encourage those who can (or have a legislative responsibility to do so) to provide suitable and sufficient fire detection and warning and support to those who can’t, due to age, ill health and/or social circumstances.