Fire safety campaign targeting single men aged 25 or over

Date article online: 02/08/2006

Single, male, had a few? You are more at risk of dying in a fire, so take extra care.

If you’re a single male aged 25 or over, living alone and you drink alcohol on a regular basis, you’re more likely to die in a fire so make sure you take extra care and make sure you’re safe. That’s the message coming from Assistant Chief Steve Beckley of Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service today as he launches a new fire safety campaign targeting single men aged 25 and over. 

The campaign is launched as 18 of the 23 preventable fire deaths that occurred between April 2005 and March 2006 were males, the majority of whom lived alone. It is estimated that at least one in three of these fire deaths also involved the consumption of alcohol. Tragically only 6 weeks ago 3 single brothers who lived together also died in a house fire. 

The creative approach to target this group sees the use of pub advertising where washroom posters, beer mats and urinal stickers have been placed in over 70 pubs throughout Greater Manchester. They show a photo of a full pint of beer on fire and the words and symbol for "Fire Hazard’ emblazoned across the front. It then carries the message that 1 in 3 fire deaths happen when people have been drinking and to take extra care when cooking and smoking if you’ve had a few drinks. Over the course of the year the campaign will also spread to other forms of media such as radio. 

Assistant County Fire Officer Steve Beckley said, "There is no doubt that as social demographics change we are seeing a new risk group emerge, that of single men who live alone and drink or smoke regularly. Sadly as our figures show 18 males died last year in fires, 1/3 of these involved alcohol use.  They are a particularly hard group for us to reach so we thought the in the first place the best thing was to take our message to them in the places they visit most, their local pubs. By using creative methods we hope to raise their awareness and they might take extra care when they’ve had a few. We also hope that some may contact us to ask us to visit them and fit smoke alarms and give them some life saving fire safety advice."