Fire safety campaign

West Yorkshire Fire Service are launching a campaign today to encourage landlords to make their properties safer.

This is how the "Blue Watch" scheme works.

Landlords will be given a self-declaration checklist which recommends how safety products can be installed, maintained and tested. They can then book a visit by a Fire and Rescue Service representative to be "Blue Watch" validated.

Self-declarations cost £25 and the validation costs £65 - both last for 12 months.

Coinciding with a West Yorkshire campaign to encourage landlords to fire-proof their homes, research shows two in five renters have not received a gas safety certificate.

Up to 99,000 rented households across Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire have had a fire or gas leak in their home.

Only one in four tenants say their landlord has a carbon monoxide alarm fitted in their property and one in ten say they don't have a smoke detector.

Last year a landlord from Wakefield was prosecuted after ignoring repeated warnings to have gas appliances in his rented property checked. The landlord was fined a total of £450 and ordered to pay £1,000 towards costs.

West Yorkshire Fire Service are launching a "Blue Watch" campaign today to make renting safer - after research revealed up to 99,000 renters in Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire have had a gas leak or fire.

The scheme will encourage landlords to join a register - which allows them to have the homes they rent validated by the fire service.