Partnering in Fire Prevention Newsletter

April 2024 Edition

Fire does discriminate

Welcome to the Spring 2024 edition of our newsletter sharing with partners the work North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue the work we are doing to keep our communities safe from fire. Previous editions can be found on our website alongside other resources for partners www.northyorksfire.gov.uk/your- safety/safe-athome/home-fire-safety- partnerships

We start this edition with a refresher about the different ways you can refer for a home fire safety check.

The national fire prevention themes we will be focusing on over the next quarter are smoke alarm testing, smoking and escape routes. To tie in with these themes this edition of the newsletter also includes a feature about the Living Well Smoke Free service.

We have been busy providing training for staff at NY Horizons in Harrogate and to Medequip in York. On the 13th March, No Smoking Day, we also promoted home fire safety at the Friarage Hospital in York.

How to refer for a home fire safety check

To refer for a home fire safety check you can visit our website or install the free Home Fire Safety Check app from Google Play

You will be taken to the NFCC Safelincs homepage which will ask you a few questions about the property and the people who live there. Answer the questions to the best of your abilities but don’t worry because we will be double checking this information when we visit a property.

The referral tool has several advantages. The form can be translated into many different languages, it can identify which Fire Service a referral needs to be sent to, and it allows us to prioritise our prevention work so that the most vulnerable get safety advice quickest.

Alternatively you can call our reception line on Call 01609 780150 and somebody will talk you through the form.

Prevention Updates

Upcoming Prevention Campaigns

To ensure the safety messages we are providing are relevant and have the most impact we follow a fire prevention campaign calendar which reflects different seasonal activities.

Smoke Alarm Testing

Fire detection within homes significantly reduces casualties, fatalities and also material loss from accidental fires.

In 1987, only 9% of households in the UK had a working smoke alarm. Current figures show that approximately 91% of households now have a working smoke alarm. 3,700 smoke alarms were fitted in 2023 by NYFRS.

This improvement has largely resulted from publicity campaigns around the simple messages of fitting smoke alarms and testing them regularly, and also because of the home fire safety visits offered by all Fire & Rescue Services.

Even when alarms are fitted in some instances they are passed their best before date, not fitted in the right place or are not suitable for the occupiers needs. We often see smoke alarms which have been disconnected because they were originally placed too close to a kitchen and went off too frequently, or are not mounted on the ceiling.

During home fire safety visits we consider all of these factors and make sure alarms are working, situated in the right places and the occupants would hear them at night time and understand what that means. Advice is provided about specialist alarms that exist for people with impaired hearing and there is assistive technology available that would automatically alert a third party if the alarms were to activate.

If you have any heating or cooking appliances which do not use electricity it means you have fuel burning appliances. Fit carbon monoxide alarms to prevent potentially fatal poisoning.

Smoking

Fires caused by smoking materials result in more deaths than any other type of ﬁre in the UK.

This is despite the overall number of cigarette smokers falling. Most people are well informed of the health risks but may remain unaware of the ﬁre risk. The most eﬀective way of preventing these ﬁres and fatalities is smoking cessation. During how home ﬁre safety visits if somebody wants advice on how to stop smoking we can refer them to the Living Well Smoke Free team. Many people may not wish to quit, and vaping is supported as a safer option – particularly for those at highest risk from ﬁre such as people with mobility issues.

Our advice and guidance includes:

Never smoke in bed because you could doze oﬀ and set ﬁre to the bedding
Never tip your ash straight into a bin containing other rubbish
Always use heavy ashtrays that can’t tip over easily and are made of materials that won’t burn

There are additional risks if you smoke and are also using emollient creams, using an airﬂow mattresses or use home oxygen.

On National No Smoking Day, a day which is focussed around promoting the beneﬁts of quitting smoking and oﬀering support and resources to those who wish to give up the habit, NYFRS supported the NHS and Living Well Smoke Free advisors at an engagement event at Northallerton Friarage Hospital.

Living Well Smokefree

Living Well Smokefree is a stop smoking service provided by North Yorkshire County Council. Living Well Smokefree has a team of experienced stop smoking advisers, currently oﬀering remote support and interventions via telephone and video conferencing.

Interventions include behavioural and motivational support and access to stop smoking medications (Nicotine Replacement Therapy, Champix and E-cigarettes). Stop smoking support is also available through GPs and pharmacies that have signed up to deliver the service.

Tel: 01609 797272

Email: stop.smoking@northyorks.gov.uk Web: www.northyorks.gov.uk/stopping-smoking

Escape Routes

Just in case there is a fire every household should have an escape plan.

Having working smoke alarms is the first step to having an effective home fire safety plan but would someone know what to do if they went off whilst they were sleeping? Our advice is to get out.

Plan a safe escape

Plan an escape route and make sure everyone knows how to get out.
Make sure exits are kept clear all the
The best route is the normal way in and out of your home.
Plan a second route in case the first one is
Take a few minutes to practise your escape
Review your plan if the layout of your home
Keep door and window keys where everyone can find them.

What to do if there is a fire

Don’t tackle fires Leave it to the professionals.
Keep calm and act Get everyone out as
Don’t waste time investigating what’s happened or rescuing valuables.
If there’s smoke, keep low where the air is
Before you open a door, check if it’s If it is, don’t open it – fire is on the other side.
Call 999 as soon as you’re clear of the

If you can’t get out,

Get everyone into one room, ideally with a window and a phone.
Put bedding around the bottom of the door to block out the smoke, then open the window and call “HELP FIRE”.

Places like assisted living or residential flats may have a stay put policy in place, this means that unless the fire is in their flat they should remain within their flat. The building has been designed in such a way that they are protected from fire in their own accommodation area.

Pet Safety

We are still creating our new campaign focusing on pet safety.

Statistics show that on average, 500,000 pets are affected by fire each year, with 40,000 of those pets dying as a result. Pets themselves are responsible for an average of 1,000 fires a year with the most common cause being knocking stove knobs on and setting fire to items which have been left on the hob.

You can help to pet proof your home by checking electrical wires for damage caused by chewing and using battery operated candles rather than ones with a flame. If there is a fire at home, once you are out, stay out. Don’t go back in to save pets, call the fire service instead.

We shall be sharing information about all of these campaigns on our social media accounts, please share them to your own pages. If you are holding any events in support of these weeks please get in touch if you would like the Fire Service to attend too.

Partner Updates

Hambleton & Richmondshire Compass E-Hub

NYFRS work with Hambleton Community Action, referring people to their groups and services and speaking at events.

A recent piece of work has involved updating the information held on the Compass website which they are administering . Cathy Cutler, Compass E-Hub Local Administrator, writes more…

The Hambleton & Richmondshire Compass E- hub is a free on-line resource aimed at helping the local Voluntary & Community sector. It provides a place for any organisation, no matter how big or small, to easily promote itself and give key information about the support and services it provides.

This can include sessions, events, services, volunteering roles, and job opportunities helping people know what is available, when and where.

Compass has the potential to have a huge impact on local health and social care, making local providers of community support more visible, giving them access to powerful online resources and providing organisations like GP practices an easy and effective route into a range of support that has often gone under the radar.

www.compassehub.com

For more information please contact Cathy.cutler@hambletoncommunityaction.org

NY Horizons

Nationally alcohol is a profile factor in 44% of fire deaths, and drug use in 11% of fire deaths. To try and reach some of those vulnerable people we recently attended a team meeting at North Yorkshire Horizons to train their Harrogate team about our Home Fire Safety Visits and how to refer people.

North Yorkshire Horizons a is a free, confidential, and non-judgemental community service for people in North Yorkshire who need support with their alcohol or drug use. The service is rated ‘Outstanding’ in all areas by the Care Quality Commission. For more information and details on how to make a referral, please visit https://www.nyhorizons.org.uk/.

Do you, or anyone you know, want to be free from drugs or alcohol misuse?

We can help you

North Yorkshire Horizons is here to help you recover from drug and alcohol addiction.

We offer a confidential, non-judgemental service to people, including families, affected by drugs and/or alcohol.

Our aim is to support you to stay safe and live happier, healthier lives, free from drugs and alcohol.

North Yorkshire Horizons has been rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission.

For more information, advice, support and to ‘self- refer’ to the service;

Freephone: 08000 141480

(9am – 8pm, Monday to Friday) Email: info@nyhorizons.org.uk Web: www.nyhorizons.org.uk

facebook.com/northyorkshirehorizons twitter.com/nyhorizons

Ongoing work with Medequip

In March NYFRS Community Safety Officers attended the Medequip site in York to learn more about their work from Logistics Manager Bruce Holroyd.

Technicians and Cleaners from Medequip were also trained in the factors which make somebody more vulnerable to fire, signs to look out for when installing equipment and how to refer to the Fire Service for a home fire safety visit.

The joint work between the NHS, Medequip and NYFRS now means that residents in North Yorkshire being prescribed air flow products will receive an A5 flyer warning about the associated fire risks of using air flow products and QR codes are being stuck to pumps allowing ongoing access to the most up to date fire safety advice.

Case Study from Home From Hospital Service

Nicola Morris-Knowles has been working as a Home From Hospital Coordinator since 2023. This is her experience of working with NYFRS and referring clients for Home Fire Safety Visits.

The home from hospital service has been running for a number of years now across North Yorkshire and East Riding ; I joined as a home from hospital coordinator for Richmondshire area at the end of 2023. The charity offer a free service to anyone over 18 who has been discharged ‘home from hospital’ regardless of the duration of their time in hospital.

Being new to the role I was keen to learn more about the fire safety visits you offer, so I if I could join a Community Safety Officer on their visit to one of my clients. As a team my colleagues and I refer many of our clients to the Fire Service as they are often elderly, weakened or frail and mobility can be a common issue. Our service looks at the individual needs of our clients to devise a support plan which will help them make a seamless transition from hospital to home.

This is a list of what the service provides.

Shopping
Prescription collection
Telephone/home visit support
Liaising with Health and Social Care professionals
Helping to set up services and support for the future
Providing emotional support for family and friends that are caring for a person that has been recently discharged from hospital

We are looking to help people settle once they are home and look at ways, we help them stay at home safely and signpost them to accessing vital services within their community. Personally, the joint visit I had with the Fire Service really helped me to see first hand what you do and say, it has helped me to provide useful information when making a referral and promote the importance of prevention.

Referral Form for Home from Hospital

About this newsletter

Our newsletter aims to provide useful information into trending ﬁre risks and an insight into what we are doing to reduce the risk and prevent ﬁres in York and North Yorkshire.

We are trying to promote this newsletter to gain a wider audience of professionals which will help us with our cause and can share our information. We would encourage you to share this newsletter with your colleagues and teams and if you know anyone that would like to subscribe to this newsletter then they can sign up to our distribution list here. If you would like to unsubscribe then please let us know by emailing Prevention@northyorksﬁre.gov.uk.

Coming next time

The sixth edition of our newsletter “Partnering in Fire Prevention” will be published in Summer 2024.

It will contain an update on our seasonal campaigns as well as any emerging local and national fire safety concerns.

Please contact us with suggestions about what else you would like to see included.

Contact us: Prevention@northyorksfire.gov.uk or call 01609 780150

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