South Yorkshire: More than 80,000 homes do not have smoke alarms

Of all the homes visited by South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue since 2010 as part of their home safety check service, over 40,000 had never had smoke alarms fitted before.

A further 42,000 homes had smoke alarms, but they weren’t working properly, either because the battery was flat or had been removed, or because they had been wrongly installed.

Fire safety officers fear that despite decades of campaigning on the issue of smoke alarms, thousands more families could be missing out on this life saving piece of equipment.

Head of community safety Kevin Ronan, said: “We’ve been providing free smoke alarms for more than a decade in South Yorkshire, and national campaigns about the importance of smoke alarm ownership and testing have been running since the 1980s. But still it seems there are thousands of people out there who are prepared to put their families’ lives at risk by ignoring this advice.”

“Smoke alarms can’t stop a fire from happening in the first place, but what they do give you is the vital extra moments needed to escape in the event of one breaking out in your home. Smoke alarms cost as little as £5 from a DIY store or supermarket, giving you the reassurance that you’ll get an early warning if the worst does happen.”

South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue has fitted more than 170,000 free alarms since 2010, plus dozens of specialist alarms for deaf or hard of hearing.”