By Stacey Bodger
TAURANGA - In the tiny town of Manaia, near Thames, firefighters persuaded a reluctant elderly man to have a free smoke alarm installed two weeks ago.
The next day a neighbour heard the alarm and raced over to find the house engulfed in smoke with the man inside.
He had
left a pot on the stove.
Manaia is the latest town to have its homes fitted with smoke alarms as part of a Bay-Waikato Fire Service partnership with community groups.
The woman who developed the strategy, Kath Lawrence, has won the Australasian Fire Service Achiever of the Year award for safety promotion.
Mrs Lawrence, the regional promotions and education officer, launched the campaign after 12 people died in fires in 1996 and 1997.
Her idea to get community agencies behind the scheme saw the number of residential fires in the region drop from 586 in 1997 to 411 in 1998.
There were three fire deaths in 1998, compared with eight the previous year, and the number of structural fires fell from 317 to 203.
Mrs Lawrence secured a $50,000 sponsorship from Eastbay Health (now Pacific Health), enabling smoke alarms to be installed in every home in Kawerau, Murupara, Matata and Taneatua.
In Ngaruawahia, a publican donated money from gambling machines for a similar project, and the Tokoroa District Council installed alarms in all pensioner housing.
Mrs Lawrence said the award belonged to every person in the region who had helped to promote fire safety.
Regional commander Jim Stephens, who nominated her for the award, had taken a stance by committing much of the region's budget to fire promotion and had made her position full-time.
"This sort of success can be achieved anywhere where people are prepared to get involved and get the message out there," said Mrs Lawrence.
For the first time, fire safety would be included next year in school curriculums.
