AN initiative aimed at teaching fire safety issues to asylum seekers who cannot speak English has been launched at a Teesside college.

The sessions, hosted by Cleveland Fire Brigade and Stockton Riverside College, have been organised following recent statistics for Teesside, which showed during the past eight months, a total of 11 fires attended by the brigade occurred in asylum seekers' properties. From these incidents, seven people had to be rescued.

The college provides the course, called English to Speakers of Other Languages (Esol) and have many people taking part.

Alan Gill, from Cleveland Fire Brigade, approached the college after hearing about the courses and deciding it would be an advantage to target fire safety messages to this particular section of the community.

He said: "Our role is no longer simply about attending fires. Much of our work involves targeting resources to educate the public and thereby reduce the risk of fires happening in the first place."

The initiative was launched last week, when Mr Gill and colleagues gave talks on fire prevention to several groups of Esol students at the college. It was followed by practical demonstrations of fire fighting in a domestic environment, such as dealing with pan fires.

There are plans to develop the fire safety initiative into the college curriculum so that each new intake of Esol students is able to receive training and practical advice.