Victorians warned about winter fire risk
Media release, Wednesday, 1 June 2011

Victoria’s fire authorities are using today’s launch of the Winter Fire Safety Campaign to urge all Victorians to be vigilant after a spate of home fires in the past fortnight.

MFB Commander Frank Stockton, said so many residential fires prior to the start of winter was alarming.

“Winter is the peak residential fire period and so many of these incidents preceding June 1, really highlights the need to take fire risk within your home seriously,” he said.

Last weekend, an elderly woman destroyed the front of her home and was treated for smoke inhalation after tripping and spilling methylated spirits onto a flame while trying to reignite her fire.

The week prior two bystanders rescued a baby from a burning home in Bentleigh East after clothes drying near a heater caught fire. The home did not have a working smoke alarm. Three days later in Carnegie, an elderly man lost his unit after flammable materials near his portable heater went up in flames.

And just weeks ago there was a fire fatality in regional Victoria - believed to be caused by a blanket on an electric fan heater – where there was no smoke alarm in the home.

In 2010, more than 1200 Victorian homes were damaged by fire. Of these, 42 percent started in the kitchen and 12 percent in the bedroom. Cooking and heating were the two greatest causes of these fires.

Speaking at the joint Country Fire Authority and Metropolitan Fire Brigade launch, Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley called on all Victorians to be more careful, and to follow the advice being put out by CFA and MFB.

“Winter sees a dramatic escalation in house fires which is why MFB and CFA work so closely together on the Winter Fire Safety Campaign.

“The call is to be a fire warden in your home not just for your own safety or to protect your property, but to ensure no one in your household has to carry a life-long reminder of what can happen because of a lapse of vigilance”.