Rosemary Desmond

May 31, 2007 12:00am

Article from: Courier Mail

QUEENSLANDERS must install smoke alarms in their homes and investment properties by July 1 this year or face heavy fines, Emergency Services Minister Pat Purcell warned yesterday.

Despite extensive publicity about how many lives have been saved by having smoke alarms, 15.8 per cent of Queensland homes are still without them, and 8 per cent of installed alarms are not in working order.

A confronting advertising campaign with images of a young child being grabbed by fingers of smoke was launched yesterday to push the message to install an alarm.

Mr Purcell said 95 per cent of Queensland house fires occurred during the winter and nearly 80 per cent of all fire deaths between 1997 and 2005 were in homes without smoke alarms.

He urged people not to wait until the July 1 deadline to install an alarm if their home did not already have one, and if possible buy a fire blanket and extinguisher.

"The minimum we are asking people to do is to go out and buy a $10 smoke alarm and you can save yourself a lot of grief – probably save your home, as well as lives," he said.

Landlords or real estate agents managing properties are also required to install alarms in rental properties, although it is up to tenants to keep the alarms cleaned and maintained with batteries.

Mr Purcell said the penalty for not having a smoke alarm from July 1 was $375 for each dwelling.

Queensland Fire Commissioner Lee Johnson said an estimated 106 lives could be saved over the next 20 years if 100 per cent of Queensland homes had smoke alarms.

He said smoke was the killer in a house fire.

"I can assure you, you will be dead long before the flames