Home safety visits (https://www.dsfire.gov.uk/safety/home/home-safety-visits)

Home safety visits

We work closely with our communities to prevent fires. We offer two fire safety services to people who live in Devon and Somerset.

Our online home fire safety check (https://www.dsfire.gov.uk/safety/home/online-home-safety-check) takes around 15 minutes and is a convenient way to help you look at areas of your home and provides tailored fire safety advice.

We also offer home safety visits (https://www.dsfire.gov.uk/safety/home/book-home-safety-visit) for the most at-risk members of our community. We will come and visit your home at a convenient time to see what we can do together to make you safer.

Online home safety check

Our online home safety check (https://www.dsfire.gov.uk/safety/home/online-home-safety-check) is a tool you can use in your own time when it is convenient to you. The questions will give you areas to check and advice to follow. If necessary, it will also refer you for a full in-person home fire safety visit.

Home fire safety visits

We will arrange for one of our friendly staff to visit you and have a conversation about fire safety in your home.

The visit usually takes around 45 minutes and covers:

checking smoke alarms are set up correctly
making a fire escape plan
electrics and charging safely
cooking safely
heaters and heating
bedtime checks
identifying and discussing any further support, and may include fitting specialist fire safety equipment where required.

Any equipment fitted will be assessed on a case by case basis. Read more about our provision of equipment (#paragraphs-expandable_block-3292).

We can provide British Sign Language and some foreign language translations during visits too. Please ask about this when booking.

Who is eligible

Not everyone needs an in-person visit from us. We direct people to our online home safety check first (https://www.dsfire.gov.uk/safety/home/online-home-safety-check), which assesses the level of risk in a household through a series of questions. We offer an in-person home fire safety visit to those who are more at risk of fire. We also work closely with our partners to help us to identify those most at risk.

If you are not sure if you are eligible, please use our online home safety check tool (https://www.dsfire.gov.uk/safety/home/online-home-safety-check) to assess your risk and we'll offer the right service for your needs.

Time slots available

We carry out home safety visits from Monday to Friday, between the hours of 9am to 5pm.

You will be offered a morning slot (a visit between 9.30am and 1pm) or an afternoon slot (a visit between 1pm and 5pm).

We try not to offer specific times, so that our team can plan their day in the most effective way. This can be discussed further when you book a visit.

What to expect

Our video shows you what to expect on a typical home safety visit.

Transcript for the video

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[Music]

A fire service van arrives at Harry's house and the Technician is let in.

Harry - "I'm on my own since I lost my wife. We used to do everything together me and my wife and there's you know it's been some time now. I've had to get used to you know being alone".

Fire Service Technician - "So as a Technician we would go to people's homes and we would just check to see that they're as far as safe as they can be. Harry had limited mobilities, he didn't really leave the property very often".

Harry - "I was amazed because it was free and they brought all sorts of things. They checked my house".

Technician - "Harry has hearing aids he wears during the day. At night time he takes them out which means that he isn't going to hear the smoke alarm".

Harry - "They brought all sorts of things so if I take my hearing aid out at night, it will wake me up if there's a fire. And they brought me a lovely blanket. I was really surprised and it was so nice to have the company which i don't normally get".

Technician - "We went into the kitchen, he had the cooker which had things that could easily catch fire close to it. We're there to help them and support them in giving them guidance on how they can make themselves safer".

Harry - "It wasn't anything like I expected. They spent that time with me and helped me so much".

Technician - "It's about them as well, coming up with ways that they can change things or they can make things safer and about just giving that extra guidance that bit of support or the equipment to enable them to be able to do that. It's a lot of us working together".

Harry - "I'm very pleased. Everything was so thorough. I didn't know they did this it's so good and more people should do it. I was amazed because it was free. It makes me feel like I can play the piano and enjoy doing something I enjoy and feel safer. And I'm just less worried and and I think I sleep a little better now, knowing that I will be safe at night. The fire service have really done something for me and I appreciate that very much".

Why have a home fire safety visit?

Many fires in the home are preventable. Our friendly home fire safety team will work with you to protect you in your home and give you simple ways to help keep you and your family safe from fire.

Verifying it's us

If you have any concerns about the identity of someone visiting you, then please give us a call on 0800 05 02 999 (Tel:0800 05 02 999) and we'll be happy to help.

How to verify it's us (https://www.dsfire.gov.uk/safety/home/verifying-its-us-visiting-you)

Book a home safety visit now

To request a free home safety visit, please call 0800 05 02 999 (Tel:0800 05 02 999) or complete our online referral form (https://www.dsfire.gov.uk/safety/home/book-home-safety-visit). The form takes just three minutes to complete.

We take every precaution to keep our staff and communities safe. If you are worried about coronavirus and want our staff to wear gloves and a face covering, please let them know on the day or contact our home safety team in advance on 0800 05 02 999.

Provision of home fire safety advice, visits, and equipment

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The Service provides free home fire safety advice to everyone.

It provides visits to eligible customers, which includes:

checking smoke alarms are set up correctly
making a fire escape plan and advising on fire risks in the home
identifying and discussing any further support, and may include fitting specialist fire safety equipment, where required.

All equipment fitting and issuing is assessed on a case-by-case basis and is at the professional discretion of the Service staff member carrying out the visit.

As a public service, we can provide equipment completely free of charge to eligible customers, who are assessed to be the most ‘at risk’ of fire. To be able to deliver this free service to the most vulnerable members of our community, and because of the large number of visits required in our service area, this means that not everyone is eligible for a visit or equipment.

We have determined our eligibility criteria using information gathered from various sources, including the reviewing of personal factors, lifestyle factors and your home environment. We also review incident data and work with partner agencies to help identify those most ‘at risk’.

Our eligibility criteria may be subject to change, to enable us to effectively manage the demand for our service and consider appropriate use of public money and spending so that we can continue to provide a free service to the community.

Whilst we strive to make every home as safe as possible, visiting everyone isn’t achievable and therefore fire safety information is available on our website (https://www.dsfire.gov.uk/safety?child=home).

We encourage those who can (or have a legislative responsibility to do so) to provide suitable and sufficient fire detection and warning and support to those who can’t, due to age, ill health and/or social circumstances.