PRIMARY school children from across Wiltshire are learning the importance of fire safety, thanks to Wiltshire Fire And Rescue Service.

Throughout the next two weeks the service is working with colleagues from Wiltshire Police, Wiltshire Council and Aster Communities to run the Junior Good Citizen programme, for 10 and 11 year olds, from 225 schools.

Junior Good Citizen, which is being run in Potterne Wick, near Devizes, is designed to help children avoid putting themselves at risk of accident or injury, by raising their awareness of situations where something could happen.

It also encourages them to respond appropriately to emergency situations.

As part of the programme, advisers from Wiltshire Fire And Rescue Service are running an exercise where children enter a room set up like a bedsit, identify the hazards and find solutions to the problems.

Dangers to spot include a soft toy left on an electric heater, candles left burning on a TV, overloaded sockets, an iron left on and face down, a petrol can placed on a hob, dangerous chemicals on view, a knife in a toaster, a tea towel drying over a lamp and a smoke alarm on the table.

Young persons’ development manager Yasmine Ellis said: “We encourage them to actively participate in the visit and to think for themselves, which helps them to develop a healthy and safer lifestyle.”