A week-long campaign by the Tamworth Herald which offered readers free smoke alarms has received more than 330 calls and e-mails.

Staffordshire Fire Service recently began a policy of offering to fit free alarms in every private home in the county.

But after three serious fires in Tamworth in less than a week, the Herald joined forces with the fire service, and ran a week-long free 24-hour phone line which people could ring to obtain a free smoke alarm.

And following the success of the Herald campaign, its sister paper, the Lichfield Mercury has also backed the campaign by highlighting it in a full-page feature.

It has also published reply coupons and paid for a free phone line for a week to allow readers to register for a free alarm.

Mercury editor Tim Hewitt said: “The information requested will help fire chiefs prioritise their lists of people known to be without smoke alarms, particularly the elderly or infirm who have no-one else to fit one for them.”

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