Cleveland Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) is one of the best performing fire services in the country for home fire safety checks (HFSCs). It carries out over 20,000 visits annually and by November 2008 had covered 40 per cent of households in its area. It has completed over 107,000 HFSCs, installed over 149,000 smoke alarms, and replaced 30,000 batteries in existing smoke alarms. The Service undertakes over 1,000 home fire safety visits per wholetime pump per year on average.
The visits are mainly targeted at deprived areas, such as their community safety action zones where local schools, homes and other institutions will all be visited for concentrated safety improvement activities in conjunction with other partners. Other partnerships with housing associations enable at-risk estates to be targeted. Other agencies will also refer vulnerable individuals such as drug users or domestic violence victims, who are visited as a priority.
The results have been encouraging, with dramatic falls in accidental dwelling fires (ADFs). An evaluation of the programme in September 2007 demonstrated a 46 per cent fall in ADFs since the 2003/04 baseline year, with a steady year-on-year decrease. The most common causes of ADFs are cooking-related (fat catching fire or burning food) and these are one of the areas targeted during HFSCs; ADFs from these causes have fallen by over 50 per cent.
CFRS believes its substantial investment in targeted community fire safety (CFS) activities (an estimated £9 million to September 2007 in firefighter time plus smoke alarm costs, of which under £150,000 was from government grant) has been justified by the greatest reduction in ADFs of all fire services. The reduction in property and life loss has produced an estimated saving of over £20 million.