Yorkshire region landlords are to receive a special briefing on fire safety in tenanted property. The half day seminar is part of a national campaign by the Residential Landlords Association to step up fire safety standards and reduce the risks of fires starting.

This follows the fire safety quidelines publication released last year produced by three official bodies representing local authorities, environmental health professionals and chief fire officers. The guidelines, which became a milestone for fire safety enforcement in residential accommodation, closely followed various major changes in legislation governing the private rented sector.

A landlord was recently fined £6,000 for failing to fit appropriate fire safety devices in a residential block of flats in Radford.

Following a blaze in the ground floor flat last year, an inspection revealed there were no fire precautions in the flats or the common areas and fire inspectors subsequently banned the use of the first and second floors.

The head of Radford fire protection said:

“This fire had the potential to turn into a very serious and fatal accident and could very easily have led to a very serious and fatal incident. I hope this prosecution will also serve as a potential warning to other landlords who may not take fire safety as seriously as they should, and do not comply with the law.”

The landlord pleaded guilty to four fire safety charges at Nottingham Magistrates Court and was fined £1,500 for each offence and ordered to pay £3,772 in costs. The charges related to lack of smoke and fire alarms, self-closing doors and lack of emergency lighting in escape routes.

A research team at Durham University have discovered that the systems behind popular first person shooters such as Halo can be effectively used to teach people about fire safety. After testing a few titles the team opted to use the engine behind Half Life 2 to create a virtual training ground for fire training simulations.

Steve Wharton, Deputy Community Safety Manager at County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service commented: "Using virtual models such as this one is an excellent way to raise fire safety awareness and test the effectiveness of a building’s design. Virtual models also provide an effective way to train fire-fighters in a realistic, yet safe, environment."

As part of the study, participants tested the virtual environment. They were told of a fire in the building and asked to find their way out and most people found the simulated environment to be realistic.

The virtual reality model was built based on Durham University’s Computer Science department consisting of three floors with a number of offices, meeting rooms and a reception. The Source engine which underlines the game Half-Life 2 was used to programme it with features such as fire alarm triggers, fire exit signs, and spreading fires.

Dr Shamus Smith of Durham’s computer science department said, "We could take what we’ve done and convert it into a mod, put it online and make it available to download. If you’ve got Half-Life 2 you could run the mod – it would be a free and easy fire training session".

A woman and two young children have been rescued by firefighters from a burning house in Gateshead.

The Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service were called to Milton Square, Mount Pleasant at 7am on Sunday the first of January to discover the house on fire.

A 32-year-old man managed to escape but crews rescued the 33-year-old woman and two children who were taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.

A spokesman said the fire spread from a wheelie bin containing barbeque ashes.

A dog was also rescued from the fire.