Students and their landlords to be targeted by firefighters in a new safety campaign after a near tragic incident in Falmouth.

The initiative from Falmouth firefighters comes after a student returning from a heavy night out started to cook food when she got home but fell asleep and set the kitchen on fire.

Despite everyone else being evacuated, when firefighters broke in they found her still asleep on her bed and had to carry her out.

At a recent presentation to Falmouth Town Council, blue watch, watch manager Rob Stapleton, whose responsibility is for students in the town, said they were just ten minutes away from a really tragic story.

“We had an unfortunate incident a few weeks ago,” he said. “A student staying over for the summer had a great night out, came home, started to cook then passed out on her bed.

“The cooking developed into a kitchen fire and everybody else from the building was discharged at 4am in the morning. We put the door through. She’s still asleep on the bed, we picked her off the bed took her out then extinguished the fire.

“For us it’s real classic incident we always talk about, go out, but don’t come home and start cooking.”

“If it wasn’t for the fire safety system and the really good diligence of the other students, we were ten minutes away from it being a real tragic story,” he added.

He said following on from that incident had got them thinking about student safety in the town. He said they do prevention work with students in the first year but once they move out to private properties for their third and second years, they lose track.

He said they were going out and finding private student housing where students are living to do safety checks and remind them of the importance of not cooking after a night out to look after themselves and their neighbours.

He said unfortunately letting agents weren’t allowed to tell them where student houses were, so they were having to go out themselves, find them and collate the information.

“Targeting landlords is the best way as they want their properties to be safe but initially, we are talking to students and getting landlords on board," he said.

“We are going to collate the information, so we have a better idea of where the student hubs are in the community.

"Keep an eye on things as we are out and be just a bit of Big Brother. Knock on their doors offer a safety check, just keep reminding them how to keep safe.”