NZ Fire Service uses ash from house fires for smoke alarm awareness campaign via FCB NZ

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Screen Shot 2016-06-15 at 9.43.14 am.jpgThe New Zealand Fire Service (NZFS) has applied $300,000 worth of free advertising today, care of its agency, FCB New Zealand, after winning News Works’ inaugural Day of Influence challenge.

The advertising higlights the danger of house fires by printing real stories about local house fires using the ash of the affected homes in regional publications around the country.

FCB has used the remains of a South Auckland home, infused with ink within today’s New Zealand Herald. The article tells how the fire swept through the home of Cathylyn Palaa, where she lived with her brother, his wife and their six children; as well as confrontational statistics on house fires in New Zealand to emphasise the importance of a working smoke alarm.

Says Palaa: “Without that smoke alarm I wouldn’t know that there’s a fire and I want to encourage people to put in a smoke alarm. Don’t think it’s a waste of time or money to buy an alarm, it can help to save lives.”

At 80 per cent of the house fires the NZFS attends, there are no working smoke alarms.

Todd O’Donoghue, NZFS national advisor fire risk management, says if people don’t have working smoke alarms, a fire is well established before it makes any noise.

Says O’Donoghue: “It’s the smoke that actually kills people, long before the flames get to them. Even a very small fire can impart toxic smoke.”

More than 3,200 house fires take place around the country every year with 19 deaths as a result since July 2015.

Local stories infused with ink and ash from recent regional fires are also running in today’s NZ Herald, Otago Daily Times, Southland Times, Christchurch Press, Hawke’s Bay Today, Bay of Plenty Times, Waikato Times, Taranaki Daily News and the Dominion Post.