A safety drive by East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service aims to help people save safely and keep warm this winter with ideas to save money and help reduce the chances of a fire.

The Service’s ‘Save Safely’ campaign has brought together a number of ideas devised to keep costs down and ensure residents stay as safe as possible.

The safety drive’s advice includes:

• Close doors. It’s amazing how much heat can disappear out of the door, and by keeping doors shut, you also reduce the chance of fires spreading from room to room.
• Switch off at night. You may be surprised to hear that energy often isn’t any cheaper at night, so you might not actually save anything by running the washing machine overnight. Before you go to bed, or go out, check the living room, the kitchen, home office, your bedroom and so on and switch off.
• Beat the energy vampires. Did you know that a phone charger uses power even when it’s not actually charging a phone? There may be a bit of debate over exactly how much you could save by unplugging devices which you aren’t using, but we’re still fans of the suggestion from a safety point of view.

The service’s free Home Safety Visits offer a range of advice on keeping your home warm safely; falls and accident prevention; health and wellbeing; escape route planning and much more. It will also fit free smoke alarms and other specialist equipment when needed.

To find out more call 0800 177 7069 (freephone) or visit the Service’s website.