IT is always terrible when people die in fires, but it is doubly so when such tragedies could be prevented.

For it amounts to lives not only being lost, but needlessly wasted.

Yet, shockingly, firefighters reveal today that dozens of fire deaths in Lancashire could have been prevented -- and most would have been avoided if smoke alarms had been installed in the homes involved.

For their analysis of the 63 deaths in fires in the past three years reveals that 50 were preventable and that 39 lives might have been saved if smoke alarms had been in place and functioning.

It must be bitterly frustrating for firemen dedicated to saving lives to find so many are wasted for the lack of a cheap and freely-available device that so many people are failing to protect themselves with through ignorance and complacency.

It must also be extremely galling for them when deaths occur in houses that do have smoke alarms which are rendered useless because there are no batteries in them -- as was the case in eight fatal fires.

It is grimly clear that the firefighters' repeated message is not getting through in many cases -- especially among vulnerable people like the elderly and smokers who were the most common victims.

The findings are now being used to ensure that their free home-safety checks, which include the fitting of smoke alarms, are targeted at the high-risk groups. It is a drive that must be kept up until everyone has got the message.