Star Comment: Alarm can save lives and home
Christmas was anything but a time of happiness for Shropshire retirees David and Shirley Healey.
They endured a day that was memorable for all of the wrong reasons. Instead of tucking into the turkey, enjoying the Queen's speech and celebrating with family and friends, they were counting the cost of a terrible fire.
The Market Drayton couple had woken just before Christmas to the sound of their smoke detector. It had been triggered by an electrical fault on a domestic appliance. The resulting blaze caused up to £25,000 damage.
Mr and Mrs Healey's Christmas Day was spent cleaning ash from their devastated home. But both counted their blessings as they realised things could have been much, much worse.
The human cost of domestic fires is clear. And at Christmastime, it is brought into sharper focus. What should have been one of the happiest days of the year became one of the most stressful and traumatic.
But they were not seriously injured, nor was their house destroyed. Their investment in a smoke detector prevented that fate and within a couple of months they should be back to normal.
Mr Healey echoed the thoughts of many people in saying he didn't think he would ever be the victim of a fire. He didn't imagine he would ever need a smoke alarm, but invested in one just in case. It may have been the most sensible investment he ever makes, for it potentially saved two lives and a home.
Our fire service mounts frequent campaigns telling us to protect ourselves against the dangers of fire. Over time, there are numerous initiatives and offers designed to make our homes safer.
And yet too many people ignore such advice, mistakenly thinking that "it'll never happen to me". Complacency sets in, people cease to realise the seriousness of personal safety and smoke detectors are left to gather dust.
Mr Healey hopes some good will come from the Christmas Day nightmare that he endured. He wants people across the region to check that their smoke detectors are working so that they too are safe.
His suggestion is welcome. Too many people become immune to the well-intentioned advice of safety campaigners. Too many switch off and leave it until tomorrow.
Investing in small, low-cost safety devices can provide the biggest saving of all: it can save a life.
