A CAMPAIGN to supply Hampshire children with life-saving smoke alarms is proving a runaway success in the New Forest.
Forest firefighters are making a massive effort to provide every child between three and 16 years of age with a detector for their bedroom.
About 10,000 alarms have been presented to schoolchildren in the district since the Target 2000 campaign was launched last year.
Community fire safety officer John Greenbank said the initiative was proving more successful than similar schemes elsewhere in the county.
He said: "The New Forest has really got to grips with this and is going great guns.
"Sub-officer Phil Gittings of Hythe fire station says he hopes that every child on his patch will have received a detector by March."
The campaign, organised in conjunction with local schools, is already achieving results.
When Fraser McGuigan, aged seven, of Round Copse, Dibden, decided to use a cigarette lighter to dispose of an unwanted Pokemon card. The smoke activated a detector he was given at Orchard Junior School a few weeks ago.
His mother Jane heard the alarm and went rushing upstairs to find Fraser frantically trying to blow out the flames. She said: "Giving every child a smoke detector for their bedroom is an excellent idea because that's where they tend to experiment."
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