Safelincs Supports Latest Fire Kills Campaign

Online, February 21, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Fire Kills is running a number of themed months covering varying aspects of safety in the home including such topics as electrical safety, cooking and so forth. In March the focus is on testing smoke alarms with an emphasis on encouraging people to do this when the clocks go back at the end of the month.

Whilst smoke alarm ownership levels have now reached 86% it is evident from statistics and real life cases that not all of these work. Figures from the English Housing Survey suggest that you are four times as likely to die in a fire in the home if it doesn't have a working smoke alarm.

Research has demonstrated that encouraging people to test their smoke alarms has the additional impact of promoting the purchase of smoke alarms.

The Safelincs service reminds people, by email or text, when it's time to test their smoke alarm, change the battery or renew the unit. It allows users to set the frequency of reminders. The service is completely free and can be cancelled at any time. Simply go to the Safelincs website and search for reminders.

The reminder service was introduced in 2009 and the numbers of people registering has continued to rise. Safelincs has contacted all the fire services in England and Wales inviting them to add a link on their website to further promote the service which many have now done.

"It's tragic to hear of cases where smoke alarms have been installed but casualties have occurred because they haven't been maintained," said Harry Dewick-Eisele, managing director, Safelincs."We hope our service goes some way towards remedying this."

The Fire Kills campaign is spearheaded by a series of advertisements on local radio stations. These prompt people to test their alarms when putting their clocks forward, reminding them of the potentially tragic consequences of smoke and fire. There will also be advertisements in national newspapers and a number of magazines as well as an online viral video on YouTube.