New online safety tool to help keep your home safe

September is Home Fire Safety Month and Avon Fire & Rescue Service (AF&RS) are encouraging local people to use a new online tool to access free, dedicated fire safety advice for their homes. The new tool, officially launched last month, has been created through a partnership between the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) and SafeLincs, with the aim of providing even more people with free home fire safety advice.   

 Accidental fires at home are a real risk, with 470 attended by AF&RS last year, a 1.7% increase on the previous year. The tool will enable anybody to access free fire safety advice via an easy online questionnaire, and AF&RS hope that this will help to reduce the risk of accidental fires in local residents homes.

Luke Lyons, Crew Manager for Risk Reduction at AF&RS has praised the arrival of the tool, saying: "I spend a lot of time speaking to local people about fire safety at home and I know that this easy tool will help give them some peace of mind as well as help them keep their homes safe from fire." 

The encouragement to use the tool comes on Home Fire Safety Month, an NFCC initiative that runs throughout September each year, and exists to encourage people to think about the ways in which they can prevent fires at home, and importantly protect local people and the things that they love. The tool can easily be accessed via the AF&RS website, the tool asks the user a number of questions about their home and lifestyle before providing them with personalised safety advice for their home and its occupants.   

Luke is also an on-call Temporary Watch Manager in Winscombe, being paged to respond to incidents alongside his day role in the Risk Reduction team. Luke added: "I've seen how devastating the consequences of fire can be to people, with not only their property but their physical and mental health being greatly affected. 

"I'd encourage you to use the tool and input your address and contact details, to ensure we can get in touch if we can offer further safety advice, or a free visit, to keep your home and loved ones safe."