A project that puts smoke alarms in the homes of people struggling to make ends meet has run out of funding.
Recent fatalities have highlighted alarms' importance.
Former Te Puna woman Deena Borell, 32, died in the Rotorua home she had just moved into, which didn't have smoke alarms.
Another woman died in
a Paraparaumu house fire this week after taking the batteries out of the only smoke alarm hours before the blaze.
Fire investigator Stuart Bootten said Te Kotahitanga rural fire safety project was due to end next week as funding had dried up.
The programme involves ambassadors employed by the Fire Service installing longlife photo-electric smoke alarms in Waikato and Bay of Plenty fire-region homes and conducting a home fire-safety check.
Mr Bootten said the programme had run on and off for 10 years and was jointly funded by the New Zealand Fire Service and Rural Housing New Zealand. Ambassadors had visited 16,000 homes in the region, including some in Pukehina and Te Puke.
One of these Te Puke homes caught fire on April 2 but a major blaze was averted by a smoke alarm installed by ambassadors in November alerting the residents.
Mr Bootten said he had been told of similar stories.
Plans to establish contacts among the Welcome Bay and Te Puna communities had been put on hold until funding was guaranteed.
If funding was approved, Mr Bootten said it could still take up to four months to have the project up again.
Ambassadors working in the Bay of Plenty region are employed through Work and Income New Zealand, which pays a percentage of their wages. They have to be re-employed each time funding is secured.
Tauranga-based fire investigator Ken McKeagg said that in areas with paid fire brigades, firefighters dropped leaflets in low-socioeconomic areas, offering free safety checks.
"It's normally the low decile homes that are the highest risk," he said.
Mr McKeagg recommended having an alarm in each bedroom and in the hallway or lounge, as long as it was far enough away from the kitchen that cooking did not constantly set it off. Longlife alarms with 10-year batteries were recommended.
