Teen's death in blaze prompts safety plea

The death of a teenager in a house fire in Norton Canes has led Staffordshire's chief fire officer to urge people to request free home fire risk checks.

Daniel Simms, aged 19, died in the early hours of Saturday.

Tragedy hit after a fire started at his home on Park Road, caused by a discarded cigarette. It took 30 fire crew to battle the blaze which broke out in an upstairs bedroom. Mr Simms' mother Jane Westwood was woken by a smoke detector and escaped to raise the alarm.

However, her son was trapped in his sister's the bedroom where he had been smoking and watching television.

Mark Williams, fire station commander for the Cannock Chase area said the smoke detector undoubtedly saved Ms Westwood's life.

The tragedy, the third in the county this year from people smoking cigarettes in bed, followed a serious house fire in Western Downs, Stafford, in the early hours of Monday. Although no-one was injured there was a considerable amount of damage caused to the property.

The call from chief fire officer and chief executive Peter Dartford coincides with the service's 500th home fire risk check request from its new freephone number.

Mr Dartford said: "I cannot stress enough the importance of fire safety in the home, as these two incidents have highlighted.

"Our home fire risk checks are free of charge and it just requires one phone call to our freephone number, 0800 0241 999. Five hundred people across the county have already made the call, so why don't you?"

The number is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Once a request for a home fire risk check is made the information is passed onto the local fire station and they arrange a mutually convenient time to visit.