Kent Fire and Rescue Service
Home Fire Safety Visits
Booked Home Fire and Safety Visits
Free home fire safety visits are available to book for Kent and Medway residents who are:
• over 70 years old
• living with dementia
• have a long-term health condition
• have a young family or a baby on the way
• smokers
The officer will check test, fit, and relocate smoke alarms as necessary, and provide fire safety advice, including information on escape routes. They will also look at product recalls for white goods and advise on other hazards – all tailored to your home. Visits usually last no more than an hour.
To book a visit call 0800 923 7000 or find out more here.
Door knocking Home Fire Safety Visits
Firefighters and KFRS’ Home Fire Safety Visit task force, door knock in their local area to offer free home fire safety visits, that last around 10 minutes. They will offer to test, fit, and relocate smoke alarms as necessary, and provide fire safety advice.
When door knocking crews will:
• be wearing KFRS uniform
• be wearing KFRS photo ID (call 0800 923 7000 if you want to check ID)
• have a fire engine or marked KFRS vehicle parked nearby
• never ask you for money or bank details - it's completely free
• not enter your property without your permission
Lyn, who is deaf and lives in New Romney with her assistance dog, Clay, recently had a home fire safety visit.
She said: “While Clay is excellent at helping out and alerting me when something is wrong, I was concerned about our safety if he was ever poorly and unable to let me know the smoke alarm was sounding.
“During my home visit, Shuna from KFRS was fantastic and installed special smoke alarms designed for people like me with hearing difficulties - a strobe light plugs into the wall and a vibrating pad is placed under your pillow, and both activate if smoke is detected.
“Now I tell everyone in my deaf community groups about the home visit service, because it can be really frightening to think you might not hear your smoke alarm.”
Diane from Deal booked a Home Fire Safety Visit after realising her smoke alarm was beeping intermittently.
Being 89 years old, she was eligible for a free booked visit and KFRS arranged a convenient time to pop round.
Because Diane is hard of hearing, the officer fitted a special flashing and vibrating smoke detector.
Speaking after the visit, she said: “It’s an extremely important thing to have fire safety in the home. The visit was completely free and was carried out with such concern and care for me and my home - they couldn’t have been more pleasant.”
Yvonne, from Whitstable, recently had a home visit, and as well as gaining some useful safety advice, she also discovered a plug socket in her office was overloaded, which she’s now changed.
She said: “I learnt a great deal during the visit, which I think are just superb.
“There were things I already know, like not leaving things on the stove, but it’s good to have someone tell you the things you might not know, such as what to do in the event of a fire.”