DORSET Fire and Rescue Service (DFRS) has pledged its support to a national campaign to raise awareness of the importance of sprinklers.

Earlier this week, firefighters from the service supported Fire Sprinkler Week 2015 with a demonstration of a live burn at a house in Christchurch.

The crew and DFRS’s Fire Safety team set fire to two premises, one fitted with sprinklers and one without.

Dorset Fire and Rescue’s operational firefighter apprentices put their training to the test in extinguishing the fire in the premises without sprinklers and the aim of the exercise was to show how quickly a fire can be ignited and spread, and to also demonstrate how fires can be quickly extinguished by sprinklers.

Andy Fox, DFRS head of fire safety, said: “This sort of test incident allows us to clearly show how sprinklers can save lives.

“Although a smoke alarm will give you an early warning that there is a fire, it will not extinguish it. A sprinkler system is like having a firefighter on standby in every room, should the worst happen.

“This exercise has also allowed our operational firefighter apprentices the chance to put their new skills into practice – an excellent learning opportunity for them.”

Fire Sprinkler Week 2015, being held until March 22, is being co-ordinated by the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA).

CFOA is campaigning for a legal requirement to fit sprinklers in higher risk premises, such as care homes, schools and other buildings, with the laws already in place in Scotland and Wales but not England.

The live demonstration was held at the Sovereign Housing Complex Strete Mount in Christchurch, and Nick Gessey, head of health and safety at Sovereign Housing, said: “It’s not often that the fire service gets to practice on an empty block like this.

“We and our residents often benefit from the skill and expertise of fire crews, so it makes sense for us to make available empty housing schemes that we are planning to demolish, like Strete Mount, so that firefighters can train on the kind of buildings they may have to attend in a real emergency.

This is the second annual sprinkler awareness campaign undertaken by Fire and Rescue Services and is this year focusing on the way that fitting sprinklers can help businesses and education, by reducing the impact of a fire.