LANCASHIRE firefighters are going all out to meet the people in a new scheme to combat a soaring number of fires in and around the home.

Last year there were more than 7,500 property or primary fires in the county -- the majority involving homes -- and nearly 9,000 involving refuse, grass and skips, known as secondary fires.

Over the past 10 years around 2,000 deaths caused by fire have been in the home.

Blackburn had the highest number of fires in the whole of Lancashire with nearly 2,000 incidents. The majority of those were started deliberately.

To counter the rising numbers station officers throughout the county are going out into the community giving advice to residents.

A similar scheme, where officers visited businesses, was a roaring success but is now being phased out as the home is identified as an accident hot-spot.

Blackburn Fire Station Commander Jim Owen said: "In the last 30 years fire services have been very successful in reducing the number of deaths in the workplace, now it's time for us to duplicate that success in people's homes. The vast majority of fire deaths occur in domestic properties -- there are around 600 deaths in the country every year through fire."

All four station officers of Blackburn's watches -- Blue, Green, White and Red -- will be out in the community, as will other officers from Lancashire's stations, meeting homeowners and residents urging them to fit smoke alarms in a bid to cut down on accidental house fires. They will also be targeting would-be arsonists.

Mr Owen said: "We want our firefighters to be more recognisable and we've changed our working practices to allow more time to be spent in the community tackling issues such as juvenile nuisance fire setting. We are trying to get lids while they may be involved in setting fire to rubbish, grass and bushes, before they move on to bigger targets like cars and then buildings.

"Just explaining the consequences of what they can do can have an impact on many of them. The hope is that with watches concentrating on their own geographical areas, they will become more easily recognisable and our message about the dangers of fire might register a little stronger."

John Taylor, spokesman for the Lancashire County Fire Service, said: "The emphasise has shifted now from factory fires to fires in the home. That's mainly down to the working practices being a lot better nowadays from a safety point of view. Typically in Lancashire there are about 20 deaths a year in Lancashire from fires. Over the past 10 years all deaths involving fires have happened in the home."