Abstract

As part of a major initiative to reduce the number of fire related deaths and injuries in the home, Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) throughout the UK have been offering free Home Fire and Safety Checks (HFSCs). HFSCs are a proven approach to improving fire safety in the home. In an attempt to direct HFSCs towards high risk households, many FRSs have developed individual and area based risk models. However, following discussions with the FRS, existing risk models appear to overlook some high risk groups, and as such there appears to be a need to refine these models. The aim of this study is to develop new individual and household level risk models, which will supplement existing FRS models, in order to target the HFSC more effectively. These models will be developed by linking currently available health, education and environmental datasets stored in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) system at the Health Information Research Unit (HIRU), to data received from the FRS. If these new models appear encouraging, it is proposed that new marketing approaches will be developed and evaluated, to improve the uptake of HFSCs by these high risk households. This study will form the basis of a larger RCT study, which will test the effectiveness of these newly developed risk models and marketing approaches.