FIRE CHIEFS are urging people to get smoke detectors fitted in the right places -- and with batteries -- after a string of potentially-fatal fires.

Sub-officer Mark Doggart said the most recent incident, at a house in Ivinson Road, Darwen, could have cost the occupiers their lives had they been asleep.

A cooker fault caused a fire and although the house had a smoke detector it was in the wrong place -- fitted vertically on a wall, not horizontally on a ceiling -- and had no batteries.

Firemen fitted a new alarm at the house and in neighbours' homes and visited other homes in the street offering help and advice.

It is all part of a slow campaign which sub-officer Doggart hopes will ultimately see all houses in Darwen fitted with smoke detectors.

He said: "The common problem is that people put the detectors too close to kitchens.

"So when they get a bit of smoke in the kitchen, which is common in most homes, they take out the batteries.

"There is no point having a smoke detector in that case."

He added: "Smoke detectors can give you vital warning to get out of a house before it is too late.

"We are here to offer advice and help in preventing tragedies."