A LIVING nightmare which most householders will have considered – and a few will have been unlucky enough to have experienced – involves fire breaking out in the home.

Such fires are mercifully rare, but they are nevertheless quite common enough to pose a serious threat to the health, welfare and lives of Islanders.

With this in mind, the Fire and Rescue Service, with the backing and assistance of the Jersey Evening Post, has just launched an awareness campaign to help minimise the risk of house fires and to assist people in coping with a fire should one break out.

The campaign will, of course, focus on the importance of life-saving smoke alarms, but there are other features of the Fire and Rescue Service’s educational programme that look at less obvious ways of protecting life and limb.

It will, for example, stress the importance of householders having a plan that can be executed in the event of fire. The principle aim of this should be to get people out of the building safely and swiftly.

There is, however, another dimension to the problem of property fires – which, in terms of the threat they pose to human life, are among the most serious incidents dealt with by Fire and Rescue personnel. Lifestyle plays a major role in fires in the home, which statistics show are more likely to break out in urban areas where there is a preponderance of flats and bedsits.

The consumption of alcohol, too, is a highly significant factor. This makes it more likely that a person will neglect food being prepared – especially when it is being fried – to the extent that it bursts into flames. It also means that people are more likely to sleep through the sound of a smoke alarm.

We are all aware that the men and women of our emergency services are ready at all times to respond to incidents of all sorts and to risk injury and even death to protect members of the public. The very least that we must do is to heed the advice now being given about fires in the home to make not only our lives safer but also those of the professionals who may be called out to help us.