Home fire safety checks
Räddningstjänsten Syd has been conducting home visits to talk about fire prevention and fire safety since 2010. This is a way to reduce the number of deaths and injuries in house fires, while at the same time bringing us into contact with the citizens of the municipalities we work for.
The home fire safety checks are made by our firefighters or instructors, who explain how you can prevent a fire and how to act if a fire does start in your home or you see smoke in the stairwell.
We go through the recommended fire safety equipment, and point out fire risks in the home. We also bring up the most common causes of fire, and how these can be handled, for example a cooker hob fire. Before we leave, we check that the smoke alarms are working. It is the responsibility of the property owner to ensure that the apartment has a smoke alarm, but it is up to you as the occupant to check that it works.
In addition to improving knowledge, the home fire safety checks create good relations and we are able to identify people who need highly individualised fire safety measures. We then conduct targeted home visits with these people.
The home fire safety checks are free and voluntary. They are conducted on our initiative but can also be booked by residents, property companies and tenant-owners’ associations.
Home fire and safety checks conducted in our member municipalities
- 10 900 home visits were conducted in 2014
- 12 000 home visits were conducted in 2013
- 12 000 home visits were conducted in 2012
- 13 500 home visits were conducted in 2011
- 12 300 home visits were conducted in 2010
Method from the UK
The method of home fire safety checks as a preventive measure comes from the UK, where it has been a huge success. In many areas, the number of people dying in fires has halved over a period of ten years. In the metropolitan county of Merseyside, which includes the city of Liverpool, the number of people who die in a fire each year has fallen from 35 to 9 since the Fire and Rescue Service launched home fire safety checks.