Hearing, sight or mobility impaired

Provision for the deaf and hearing impaired

North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service can advise and support people who are hearing, sight or mobility impaired and who face particular challenges in ensuring their home fire safety.

Book a free home fire safety visit

Our most practical support is to conduct a free home fire safety visit, at which we will assess any issues and give practical support, for example in fitting smoke alarms.

You may call us for fire safety advice by using the text relay service. If you are making a call from a textphone please dial 18001 01609 788635. To make an emergency call from a textphone please dial 18000. Online advice is available on using the text relay service.

Smoke alarms for people with hearing impairment

Many people whose hearing is not severely impaired are still able to hear a conventional smoke alarm. It is a good idea to link two or more alarms. This way smoke detected in the living room will set off another alarm in the bedroom. An electrician will be able to advise you about linking the alarms.

For people who would not be able to hear a conventional smoke alarm there are special devices available which make use of a vibrating pad or flashing light instead of the auditory signal - the vibrating pad alarms are particularly useful for deaf-blind people. 

Useful links

General fire safety advice leaflet
Practical advice and tips that will help protect you from the risk of fire

FireKills multimedia presentations
General fire safety advice for people with sight, hearing or mobility difficulties

Large text safety leaflets
Large format leaflets are available on the Firekills Facebook page.

 Emergency Text Service
The emergencySMS service lets deaf, hard of hearing and speech-impaired people in the UK send an SMS text message to the UK 999 service

Text relay service
Text Relay connects people using a textphone with people using a telephone or another textphone. It lets deaf, hard of hearing and speech impaired people stay in touch with friends and family, and call businesses over the telephone

British Sign Language
Click on the link to access www.britishsignlanguage.com for advice on sign language, courses and learning CD

British Deaf Association
Click on the link to access the British Deaf Association

Large print fire safety leaflets

The following leaflets have been produced in large print, with easy-to-read illustrations, for people with sight difficulties:

• Fire Safety in the Home
• Fire Safety Outdoors
• Winter Safety
• Celebrating Safely
• Christmas Safety
• Boats and Caravans Fire Safety

More large print leaflets are available on the Firekills Facebook page.

British Sign Language fire safety videos.