Cheap chips to cut toll of fire victims

SHOPPERS across the county will be able to pick up cheap oven chips as part of a safety campaign being organised by South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue.

By The Newsroom

Published 16th Feb 2011, 06:00 BST

The fire service, in partnership with the Co-operative group, will be handing out money-off coupons alongside fire safety advice at a string of events to mark National Chip Week, which runs from next Monday until Sunday, February 27.

Chip pans have caused 465 fires, 112 injuries and two deaths in South Yorkshire since 2007 alone.

In January, one of two chip pan fires within an hour of each other in Parson Cross, Sheffield, led to a 12-month-old baby being taken to hospital.

Steve Makepeace, the fire service’s head of community safety, said: “It’s perhaps hard to believe, in this day and age, that people still use chip pans.

“But our data shows they remain a real and present danger.

“You wouldn’t fill a container with flammable liquid and light a flame under it, yet using a chip pan poses the same kind of danger.”

He added: “Oven chips or thermostat-controlled fryers are much safer.”