Kurnal I'll have a bit of an early morning reply/rant - I don't think the fire service can be responsible 'after the fact' - i.e. post ignition. In a previous uniformed life I formed partnerships between my borough and a variety of disadvantaged groups from mental health, elderly, drink/drug dependent, etc. with fire awareness information and smoke detector fitting as the basic provisions. Surprisingly the local housing almo wasn't that interested but I did try.
I hesitate to promote a nanny state though; fair enough for those that need some assistance such as those who would have been receiving care in purpose built facilities pre-Maggie but many of those shouldn't have been there either - I also used to work on a station with three large Victorian 'mental hospitals' on the ground which were virtual prisons for many. The Housing Act should ensure that the basics of smoke detection is provided and a modern housing provider should give tenants fire safety advice when moving in and when there are any changes but to be honest how many people bother reading that advice and secondly how many of the vulnerable would understand; its difficult enough trying to get so called professionals to understand 'defend in place/stay put' strategies and sometimes ignorance may be bliss. I don't believe that signs on buildings will help as many of the client group are constantly on the move and as an OIC I may be tempted to effect rescues of people that have moved out months before that may jeopardise fire-fighter or other lives - remembering that you'll have one pump and four crew for a while at many of these incidents. The housing provider also cannot afford the time or money to keep such signage up to date - it distresses me to see very expensive (and often empty) premises information boxes fixed to 3 storey blocks - I recently saw one on a NHS 'portakabin' - when the money could be much better spent elsewhere.
Apart from the odd occasions most fire victims die in their own homes, often in the room of origin and with one of the age/infirmity/dependency characteristics that any experienced fire officer will recognise. I'm not saying we should ignore these factors and give up but reduced incidences of fire due to various social and technological factors and the initiatives in furnishings, coupled with the availability of cheap smoke detection and alarm has given many a better chance than they had 20-30 years ago when the death rates started falling dramatically. Fire safety measures and appropriate information, utilising local contacts such as housing officers and carers, is the way forward. The way backwards is to design and build shoddy buildings that push the limits of tried and tested fire safety design - and that concerns me more even though there could be a nice profit in it for me if I ever decide to jump on that particular bandwagon!
