Fire authority chief issues YouTube advice to landlords

Mark Healey stresses importance of mains-wired smoke alarms being installed in rented properties.

Councillor Mark Healey, Chairman of Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority, is featured on a new YouTube clip promoting the use of mains powered smoke alarms.

The video shows the importance of landlords in the private and social rented sector installing mains-wired smoke alarms in all the properties they are responsible for.

Cllr Healey is the national Fire Kills campaign advocate for the private and social rented sector.

He said: “As a landlord myself, I know how important it is to install working smoke alarms in the properties I am responsible for. I am therefore pleased to have been asked to help support the Government’s Fire Kills campaign and urge all landlords to consider installing either 10-year battery alarms or hard-wired detectors in their properties.”

Landlords have a duty of care to their tenants to ensure that they are safe within their properties, and making sure they have the right smoke alarms installed is critical.

Despite a rise in smoke alarm ownership nationally, evidence suggests that those renting properties without an alarm are often among those most vulnerable to the risk of fire such as older people or single parent families.

The YouTube clip featuring Cllr Healey has been produced by the Department of Communities and Local Government, in partnership with AICO, and can be viewed at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/user/FireKillsCampaign#p/u/7/oCEpUTTAVu0