‘Fire service must push public to buy alarms’

FIRE OFFICERS need to concentrate on preventing fires rather than putting them out, the chief fire officers’ conference was told yesterday.

If the fire service encouraged people to install smoke alarms and to improve their fire safety knowledge, the number of fire fatalities would drop dramatically, according to Westmeath chief fire officer Dave Stewart.

He said 82% of fire-related deaths occurred in the home, yet smoke alarms were only installed in 28%. Less than 50% of Irish households have a smoke alarm.