Drinking and Cooking related fires a burning issue for the fire and rescue service

This week the North Wales Fire and Rescue Service are guest blogging as part of our ongoing campaign to tackle alcohol abuse. This article by Richard Fairhead, Senior Fire Safety Manager highlights another dimension to the discussion.

North Wales Fire and Rescue Service has recently launched another campaign focussing on drinking and cooking, this time to coincide with the World Cup football tournament.

This initiative is the latest effort in the region to discourage residents from attempting to cook after drinking alcohol.

Statistics across the U.K. show that one in every three fire deaths is drink related, and the majority of accidental domestic fires begin in the kitchen.

In 2007, Sean Bowers, 24, from Penyffordd and Andrew Roberts, 39, from Ruthin, both died following separate fires in their homes both caused by chip pans. Both had been drinking, and had arrived home to cook themselves something to eat. Andrew had finished cooking and had fallen asleep on the couch but failed to turn off the gas. Sean also fell asleep with the chip pan left on the stove. The chip pans overheated and caught fire - Sean and Andrew never woke up.

Leaving cooking unattended is often a recipe for disaster and if you've been drinking you're even more vulnerable as you're at high risk of being distracted of falling asleep. Drink affects people mentally and physically, increasing their likelihood of having a fire and slowing their reaction times when one breaks out.

If you're asleep and a fire breaks out, you're in serious trouble. Just a couple of breaths of fire smoke can be enough to knock you completely unconscious. The smell of smoke doesn't wake up you up - the poisonous gases produced by a fire numb the senses and put you into a deeper sleep. This is why it is essential to have working smoke alarms in your home. Frighteningly, you are also putting the lives of your whole family at risk - a child can die from smoke inhalation in under a minute.

Despite the old proverb 'a watched pot never boils', keeping a close eye on your cooking really will save your life. Whether you've had a few drinks or not, our advice to cooks is quite simply to stand by your pan and get working smoke alarms.

Avoid your lives going up in smoke by following the tips listed below.

- Never cook after drinking - prepare a sandwich or get a takeaway instead.
- Don't leave cooking unattended -a small fire can quickly turn into a life threatening one. A household fire doubles in size every thirty seconds.
- Ensure you have a working smoke alarm in your home, and test them once a week.
- Formulate a fire escape plan to ensure that you and your family know how to escape safely in the event of a fire.

All three fire and rescue services in Wales fit alarms free of charge, and will give fire safety hints and tips as well as helping you design a fire escape plan for your home.

To take advantage of their friendly and informal home visits, residents can book a free Home Safety Check by calling the 24 hour hotline on 0800 1691234 or texting 88365, ensuring they prefix the message with the word HFSC.

Time to tackle the affordability of alcohol

NICE have today published guidelines to tackle alcohol misuse.

BMA Cymru have been saying for some time that tough action is needed to tackle this issue. We are pleased that NICE is joining our call for a ban on alcohol advertising and the introduction of a minimum price per unit of alcohol.

Critics of minimum pricing should read the research by Dr Robin Purshouse on alcohol pricing - it makes for interesting reading. He estimates that a minimum price on every unit of 40 pence would result in about 1,000 fewer premature deaths a year, around 40,000 fewer hospital admissions a year, and about 10,000 fewer violent crimes and criminal damage incidents per year. Read his report here.

We are convinced that in order to tackle alcohol misuse a whole raft of measures is required, which include reducing availability, increasing taxes on drinks with the highest alcohol concentration, reducing the drink-driving limit and tackling advertising and minimum pricing.

We are not opposed to people drinking alcohol in moderation - what we want is to help people avoid using alcohol at levels which endanger their lives and those of others.

A few weeks ago we held a seminar on tackling alcohol abuse: an integrated approach forward. Watch it here.

What do you think about the recommendations from NICE?

Alcohol Abuse: An Integrated Approach Forward

Last week we brought together leading UK experts to speak at our seminar on alcohol abuse, and to debate an integrated approach forward in tackling Wales' growing drink problem.

Speakers included: myself; Dr Zul Mirza, President of the Emergency Medicine Section, Royal Society of Medicine; Simon O’Brien, Deputy Inspector of policing for Ireland; Professor Eileen Kaner, Chair, Alcohol Programme Development Group NICE; Wynford Ellis Owen, Chief Executive of The Welsh Council on Alcohol and other Drugs; Andy Tighe, Director, Brewing, Beer and the Pub Association.

You can watch the seminar here.

We know that Health Minister Edwina Hart would like to see action on alcohol pricing from her statement in Plenary last month, and we are urging the Minister to act sooner rather than later in seeking further powers to tackle alcohol abuse, to help improve the health of the people of Wales.

Recent years have seen an increase in the levels of alcohol misuse in Wales, and in particular the pattern of binge drinking and heavy drinking.

Alcohol consumption is associated with a wide range of medical conditions and is a significant cause of morbidity and premature death. It contributes to a range of acute and chronic health consequences, from alcohol poisoning and injuries resulting from traffic crashes to cancer and cardiovascular disease. The more an individual consumes, the greater the risk of harm.

Alcohol misuse is associated with crime, violence and anti-social behaviour, and can impact significantly on family and community life.

Below are our recommendations to tackle alcohol abuse which we intend to send to the Health Minister:

• Taxation on all alcoholic beverages should be increased at higher than inflation rates and this increase should be proportionate to the amount of alcohol in the product.

• Legislation should be introduced to:
-prohibit irresponsible promotional activities in licensed premises and by off-licenses
- set minimum price levels for the sale of alcoholic beverages

• It should be a legal requirement for alcohol labeling to include the following information:
- alcohol content in units
- recommended daily UK guidelines for alcohol consumption
- a warning message advising that exceeding these guidelines may cause the individual and others harm

• Licensing legislation should be strictly enforced, including the use of penalties for breach of license, suspension or removal of licenses, the use of test purchases to monitor underage sales, and restrictions on individuals with a history of alcohol-related crime or disorder. There should be adequate funding for enforcement agencies, with consideration given to the establishment of a dedicated alcohol licensing and inspection service.

• A statutory code of practice on the marketing of alcoholic beverages should be introduced and rigorously enforced. This should include a ban on:
-marketing of alcoholic soft drinks to young people
-alcohol industry sponsorship of sporting, music and other entertainment events aimed mainly at young people
-broadcasting of alcohol advertising at any time that is likely to be viewed by young people

• The legal limit for the level of alcohol permitted while driving should be reduced from 80mg/100ml to 50mg/100ml throughout the UK.

• Public and school-based alcohol educational programmes should only be used as part of a wider alcohol-related harm reduction strategy to support policies that have been shown to be effective at altering drinking behaviour, to raise awareness of the adverse effects of alcohol misuse, and to promote public support for comprehensive alcohol control measures.

• The detection and management of alcohol misuse should be an adequately funded and resourced component of primary and secondary care to include:
- formal screening for alcohol misuse
- referral for brief interventions and specialist alcohol treatment services as appropriate
- follow-up care and assessment at regular intervals