30% of fatal fires involved someone with a physical disability!
Following our feature on Alf Jackson one of our members shared a fire brigade tweet with us. This stated that 30% of fatal fires involved someone with a physical disability.
We were a bit stunned by this statistic and it got us thinking about how we make homes safe for people. Public building have safe fire spaces, evacuation chairs, etc. but what about our homes?
What should we do to make our homes fire safe?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mrs Ailsa Dow on
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Hi,
here at Fife Council Social Work Service we have an excellent partnership with Fife Fire and Rescue Service. We can directly e-mail the Fire Service to request a Home Fire Safety check visit raising any particular concerns we may have regarding a vulnerable service user with a disability. The Fire Service also provide Fire Angel wireless smoke detectors (funded through Fife Council's Occupational Therapy Service) with vibrating pillow pads and a strobe light for the profundly deaf and hard of hearing community who would be at risk if unable to hear a normal smoke alarm. Some other examples would be for smokers who may be at risk of dropping a lit cigarette in their home if they fall asleep or have a cognitive problem, etc., or those who may be at risk of fire in their kitchen. The Fire Service have a register for vulnerable residents so that when an alarm is raised they can respond knowing the situation/physical problems of the resident and that they cannot easily escape from the property. Our Telecare Service offers smoke detectors linked to the Community Alarm Call Centre. Fife Council's Fife Cares Service provides free Home Safety and Home Security checks to any resident over aged 65 yrs and part of this service involves checking for any safety risks with appliances, cables, plugs etc. that could cause a fire.
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Permalink Reply by bespoken Team on
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Hi Ailsa, thanks for sharing sounds like a great service you are providing does anyone else know if their local authority provide this service?
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Permalink Reply by Linda Jane McLean on
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Fire is a major concern to many wheelchair users, as they cannot use the usual escape route of windows. I have pointed this out time and again. The only safe solution is to have a second door. Architects balk at this: they see it as unnecessary.
Not all public buildings have placed of safety. I know a paraplegic who was advised to slide down the bannister in the case of fire in a Government building! (Who was going to catch him at the bottom, and what happened to the wheelchair were always to remain a mystery....).
I was friendly for many years with a lady who had been the first person to teach from a wheelchair in Scotland.
She had amazing courage and resilience, and a huge array of friends, but I was astonished at how little she was assisted by SWD.
Latterly ,she became VIRTUALLY QUADRIPLEGIC,and was unable to exit either her from or back door independently. As she had no full time carer, and the wiring in the house was some considerable age, I asked her if she was not concerned.
She responded thus:
"I have long since accepted that if there is a fire in this house, I will burn to death. End of story."She had asked for her door to be made accessible for her, as she was alone in the house 90% of the time. She was told that the ability to exit her house door was "a want, not a need".
It was in the research of trying to challenge this answer, that I discovered that "needs" has never been clearly defined.
She found that it was very difficult to make any professional fully aware of, or to pay any heed to, the fire risk, Nor did they care how vulnerable she felt. There was certainly no provision made.
It was simply astonishing, that someone who had made so much effort, and given so much, should be treated so shabbily.
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