Safety device 'would save lives'

A North American device being distributed in Manawatu will prevent stovetop fires like the one that killed two people in Foxton last week, a Palmerston North firefighter says.

Station officer Gary Hills, a firefighter with 30 years' experience, runs the first New Zealand company to import and sell the Safe-T-element – a steel plate that reduces the amount of heat an electric coil element can emit.

"Forty two per cent of New Zealand fires start in the kitchen," Mr Hills said. "I was looking around for something to try and stop stovetop fires and found this."

Most coil elements can reach temperatures of up to 700 degrees Celsius but Mr Hills said food needed only 350C to cook.

"This product limits the element temperature to 350C.

"It's hot enough to cook with but not hot enough to set fire to anything. And it will still brown your steaks and fry your chips."

Unattended cooking, which accounts for a third of New Zealand's fatal fires, is believed to be the cause of a fatal house fire on Foxton's Hulke St last Wednesday.

Three-year-old Lesharn Kiri-Leigh Taitoko and Waiouru's Atarina Emma Robinson, 22, were killed in the fire.

Four Manukau children, aged between one and 15, were killed in January when a pot of hot oil and chips on a stove caught fire.

Mr Hills began searching for a way to stop these types of tragedies about five years ago – having seen the devastating effect of such fires through his career.

"The victims are much wider than just the immediate family. It affects the community and the extended family," Mr Hills said.

"The fire service does some great promotional work around looking while cooking but unfortunately human nature means we won't always do this.

"People will always have other things to do and children to look after. Also, a lot of these fires involve people using alcohol and drugs."

Mr Hills said the plate was one of the only preventative devices on the market, making it different to reactive devices like cut-out switches and smoke alarms.

"It won't do away with your smoke alarms or looking while you're cooking but again it's just about human nature."

Three of the elements have been installed in Palmerston North rental properties but Mr Hills said they would be ideal for Housing New Zealand properties, institutions, halfway houses and units.

The quality of food cooked on the device was not affected, there was a 75-second time delay in heating up the plate and people could save between 25 and 30 per cent on power bills, he said.

"I'm a fireman not a businessman so the aim of this for me was purely to prevent stovetop fires."

A total of 961 New Zealand fires were started in the kitchen in the 2008/2009 year, according to the New Zealand Fire Service.

- © Fairfax NZ News