Elderly man dies after house fire

Fire crews, police and ambulance were called to the scene

An elderly man has died in hospital following a fire at his house in Carmel near Caernarfon earlier this week.

Firefighters were called to the mid-terrace home at 1817 GMT on Tuesday to rescue David John Little, 64.

North Wales Fire Service confirmed the man had died on Friday. A firefighter suffered minor burns and was treated in hospital.

It's thought the blaze was started by smoking materials and the fire service urged others to reduce the dangers.

Simon Smith, North Wales' chief fire officer, also called for all local authorities in the region to sign up to an agreement sharing information about the public, especially those particularly at risk of fire in the home.

He said, in his opinion, the data sharing protocol was "absolutely vital" to prevent further fire deaths.

Protocol

"We have one of the highest rates of fatalities in accidental house fires throughout England and Wales," Mr Smith said.

"Sharing data in this way is a huge positive step we can take towards reducing that rate and safeguarding the lives of members of the community."

So far Denbighshire, Anglesey, Flintshire and Wrexham councils have all signed the protocol.

North Wales Fire Service is making every effort to seek approval for the agreement from the councils in Gwynedd and Conwy.

Mr Smith said the fire service knows its community fire safety work saves lives and "the statistics speak for themselves"

Zero tolerance

The service carried out over 14,000 home fire safety checks in 2006/7 and that figure is likely to reach 22,000 in 2007/8.

He said as a direct consequence people were installing smoke alarms at home and they were making a positive difference to fire safety.

But the fire chief said they were now looking at working with other agencies, like housing associations, social services, NHS Trusts and local health boards.

He also appealed to families and neighbours to look our for elderly relatives and make sure they have fire safety checks and their smoke alarms are working.

"We are working hard to achieve zero tolerance to fire deaths in north Wales - but we know we can't do that on our own."