Rotherham fire alarms must be tested, warning

Fire crews have attended more than 100 house fires in the past three years where the fire alarms inside were found to be faulty or contained flat batteries and the results of a recent poll found that around 30 per cent of households would not be alerted by the devices they had installed.

A spokesman for South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue said that the force’s senior officials had been “shocked” by the results of a recent poll, which indicated just one in ten people in South Yorkshire followed national guidance by testing their smoke alarms on a weekly basis.

Kevin Ronan, head of community safety, said: “I’m shocked so many people fail to properly maintain what is potentially a life saving device.

“Smoke alarms provide an early warning of a fire and can give occupants vital extra minutes to escape, especially at night. But a detector can only save your life if it is working and the battery is checked regularly.”

A spokesman for the fire service this week recommended that smoke alarms are fitted on every level of a property and tested weekly.