Agenda item

The Committee received a report of the Corporate Director of Resources that provided background information in advance of the presentation (attached in Appendix 2) from County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service (CDDFRS) that gave an overview of community fire activity with a focus on home fire safety visits (for copy see file of Minutes).

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer gave a detailed presentation that focused on home fire safety visits that were carried out by operation crews and specialist teams that made the person centred and concentrated on nine key components:

·      Home Fire Detection

·      Kitchen Safety

·      Fires and Heaters

·      Smoking-Related Fires

·      Electrical Safety

·      Clutter and Hoarding

·      Medicines and Medical Devices

·      Escape Planning

·      Arson/Deliberate Fires/ASB

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that smoke alarms were available to be fitted free of charge.  Residents were educated on how most fires started in the kitchen, many when people got distracted elsewhere in the home whilst leaving pans on stoves.  Residents were advised that oil filled radiators were the safest way to heat the home as an alternative to central heating, rather than halogen type heaters.  Smoking was a major cause of fatalities in house fires  when people fell asleep with lit cigarettes still burning.  People were advised on safe smoking if they were unable to quit.  Other areas that the visit covered were to do with unfit electrical goods if bought from unsafe sources, overloaded electrical sockets, medical equipment and hoarding that all increased the risks of fire in the home.   Escape plans were discussed so people knew how to escape their property especially if a fire broke out during the night.  There were issues with arson and deliberate fires that were mitigated with wheelie bins which were an easy target.  Residents were told not to leave them out once the rubbish was collected.  There were approximately 18,000 home fire safety visits per year therefore the service tried to take a measured approach and target the most vulnerable through 4 methods:

·      Partner referrals

·      Target address lists

·      Self referrals

·      Hot strikes (following an incident in an area)

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer stated that the Fire Service worked with various partners that created six referral pathways that were linked by the increased risk or health issues of vulnerable people.  There were:

·      Alzheimer’s Society

·      Age UK

·      NHS Falls Team

·      Stop Smoking Service

·      Warmer Homes Scheme

·      Alcohol Harm Reduction Team

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented graphs that showed the services current performance on the number of accidental dwelling fires and home fire safety visits for a period from 2004/05 to 2022/23, the fatalities and injuries from accidental dwelling fires, the number of accidental dwelling fire from Q1 to Q3 in 2023/04, the number of casualties from Q1 to Q3 in 2023/04 and the number of fatalities from Q1 to Q3 in 2023/04.   He confirmed that there was constant internal learning after every serious incident and increased working with partners and the Adult Safeguarding Board. Data sharing was key although this had issues due to GDPR but protecting the vulnerable is at the forefront for the service.  The Safer Durham Partnership had signed up to the Safer Homes Protocol and the Eyes Wide Open scheme that provided training to front line staff that had helped referrals for vulnerable clients.

Councillor J Miller thanked the Deputy Chief Fire Officer for an informative presentation.  He referred to the increase in the number of fatalities that had increased from 2 to 7 last year and asked if there was further information as to what people were targeted, what the response times were and if there were any lessons learnt.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer responded that there was no correlation between each incident.  Although monitored there were no issues with response times as Durham and Darlington Fire Service had the fastest response time in their family group.  With all fatalities partner agencies were engaged with to encourage them to make more referrals and participate in more training. 

N Bickford stated that there were opportunities to increase referrals from Durham Constabulary and he would discuss further with the Deputy Chief Fire Officers after the meeting.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer stated that referrals were from mixed sources but one in 20 referrals came in relating to health issues where residents required oxygen.  The Fire Service wanted to see other partners referring more vulnerable people who had health issues to have home visits carried out to reduce fatalities. 

Councillor E Mavin asked if the Fire Service carried out safety inspections on Community buildings and if so, were these automatic or did they need to be requested.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer responded that it was two fold in that legislation required public buildings to have safety inspections carried out however if premises were prone to high risk like hospitals or care homes extra visits could be carried out.  He added that community centres were classed as a low risk but if anyone had any concerns about a building to contact the Fire service who generally responded to complaints/compliments from a member of the public within 48 hours. 

Councillor R Crute asked if fire safety was linked to poverty and the prevention of fire due to poorer living conditions for example in the private sector. He queried if work was carried out in geographic area where people who potentially could not afford to run their central heating were at a higher risk of fire.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer acknowledged that there was a correlation between the more deprived areas and the number of fires. He advised that data was used to target people in these areas for planned home fire safety visits and some house fires in these areas were down to people using flame-based heaters such as halogen heaters when they struggled to heat their homes.  Officers would offer safety advice, refer people to the warmer homes scheme and advise them to use oil heaters which were safer to use.  He confirmed that work was carried out with housing providers like Livin and Believe and those private landlords who were part of the selective licensing scheme to offer advice and training.  Further work was needed to engage with private landlords that were not part of the selective licencing programme where living conditions were worse and there was an increased risk of ill health.

Councillor J Charlton thanked the Deputy Chief Fire Officer for the presentation. She mentioned that there had been a fire in her village that had a fatality that she had been told had been caused by smoking in bed.  She did not know how to stop people smoking in bed.  She was interested in how these people would be engaged with especially if they had no family or smoke alarms in their properties if they used care services.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer explained that some care organisations engaged with the Fire service and others were a challenge especially those who had a high turnover of staff making it hard to provide training. He knew that some older  people who had smoked all their life would find it difficult to stop.  Therefore the fire service offered advice on how to smoke safely.

S Helps added that were four referrals a day on average through social care, police and domestic services.  There were fewer referrals from GP surgeries and partners needed to work with the fire service to refer vulnerable people in the community to prevent seeing them in a crisis.

Resolved:

That the information contained within the report and presentation be noted.