More than 1,000 smoke alarms are installed every month in homes across Kent and Medway by Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS).

In the past year (July 2023 and June 2024) firefighters and other specialist KFRS teams have visited more than 33,000 homes, as part of its free Home Fire Safety Visit service.

Fires can happen when you least expect them, often during the night, which is why it’s so important to have smoke alarms in your home. If you’re asleep when a fire starts, a smoke alarm will wake you and give you a chance to escape before you are overcome by smoke.

Data shows that more than 20% of households in Kent and Medway don’t have working smoke alarms*, which increases the risk of death, injury or property damage if there was a fire.  

In a bid to make more homes fire safe, KFRS is embarking on its ‘Fight Against Fire’ mission to install as many smoke alarms as possible over two days – in addition to daily home fire safety visit activity which happens across the service all year round.

On Wednesday 24, and Thursday 25 July, hundreds of uniformed firefighters will be knocking on the doors of homes across the county and offering residents a free home fire safety visit.

The visits will last about ten minutes and firefighters will offer to test, relocate, and install smoke alarms where needed. They will also provide home safety advice tailored to each home and answer any questions.

*From KFRS’ incident recording data system

Dr Rana in Canterbury:

A resident who has recently benefited from a KFRS home visit is Dr Rana El Azab, who lives in Canterbury.

She contacted the fire service after some of her smoke alarms started continuously beeping. Debbie, a KFRS Safe and Well Officer, visited her home to check and replace the alarms and provided other advice to help keep the home safe from fire.

Dr Rana said: “The fire smoke alarms I have in my house are old and expired now, and a couple of them have been beeping a lot, so I needed to replace them. By coincidence, I discovered that KFRS does these home visits, so I thought why not.

“It was my first visit and Debbie was really friendly and I found out some stuff that I do well, and what I need to do better to make us safer, such as trying not to put as many electrics into an extension cord and instead putting it straight into a plug socket.

“In the evening, I need to turn off sockets for appliances, and test my smoke alarms more often. I thought you had to do it every now and then, but I never thought to test them every week.

“You never know what might happen when you’re asleep at the night or out during the day, so the visit made me feel more comfortable and it’s given me peace of mind knowing that if anything happens when I go to bed, I’ll be woken up by my smoke alarms.”

Ian from Hoo, Medway:
 

Ian Fairclough has also recently been visited by KFRS after he had concerns about his hallway smoke alarm not working properly.

During the visit, Safe and Well Officer, Luke, found that the smoke alarm had expired eight years ago, in 2016. Luke removed the old alarm and fitted a new one in a better position closer to the kitchen.

Ian said: “I never thought to check the date of the smoke alarm, I just put a new battery in it and away we went, although the one in the hallway had been hanging down for quite a while but we couldn’t afford to replace it.

“The visit was explained perfectly by Luke and was very informative, there was a lot of stuff I didn’t know.”

Ian also says he has become more forgetful since having a stroke several years ago, and had accidentally left the oven on a few times, so he wanted to make sure he was being as safe as possible.

Luke installed a heat detector in the kitchen to make sure Ian and his family would be alerted if any appliances were left on accidentally.  

Ian continued: “I had a stroke in 2018 and my memory is getting gradually worse, I keep leaving the oven on and forgetting all about it so it’s causing me a lot of issues. I’d left the oven on the night before this visit and didn’t know until my wife told me.  

“I’d never heard of a heat detector before and at least I’ll know if I do leave something on as it will be making a noise. That will help me immensely.

“I feel a lot more comfortable now after this visit especially because these new smoke alarms have a built-in battery, so I won’t have to keep changing them.”

What residents can expect from the door knocking service: 

Firefighters door knocking:

• Will be carrying Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS) branded photo ID. You can call 0800 923 7000 to verify that they work for the fire service.
• Will be wearing KFRS branded uniform
• Will have a fire engine or KFRS branded vehicle parked nearby
• Will never ask for money or bank details
• Will never carry out a home fire safety visit without your permission or supervision

While a firefighter will lead the home fire safety visit, some may be accompanied by a non-uniformed member of KFRS staff, there to shadow the officer and learn more about home fire safety visit.

It’s not just these two days in July that the visits are carried out. Home Fire Safety Visits are an important part of a firefighters everyday role when they aren’t responding to emergencies or training. Therefore, residents that don’t get a knock the door on either 24 or 25 July, may be offered a visit on another day.

KFRS also offers free, pre-booked Safe and Well home visits for residents over 70, people with a long-term health condition, smokers, families with children under five, and expectant mothers. Call the team on 0800 923 7000 to find out more and book.