GMFRS highlights work to tackle hoarding following @C4Insider documentary

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) is highlighting the dangers of hoarding in light of international news coverage on the issue in recent months.

Following a series of TV documentaries and news stories, individuals and organisations have become more aware of hoarding and its risks - and for fire and rescue services, the issue presents a number of fire safety hazards.

GMFRS often gets called out to incidents where hoarded materials have either fuelled a fire or put a person at greater risk of injury by preventing an escape.

Just a couple of months ago, crews were called to a fire at a house in Stockport after a pan of water had been left unattended on an electric cooker.

Due to the amount of materials nearby, a fire started in the kitchen and the woman tried to put the fire out herself, but it reignited while she was upstairs and she could not escape.

The woman was advised by the fire service Control Operator to stay upstairs with her two dogs whilst the crews made their way to the house.The woman was led to safety by firefighters before being taken to hospital suffering from minor smoke inhalation.

GMFRS crews and Community Safety Advisors returned to the area following the incident to offer support to the woman and her family and offer Home Safety Checks to neighbouring properties.

Station Manager Andy Ross said: "Fires in homes that are occupied by hoarders are not new. Due to the large amount of fire loading and unstable materiel they present severe difficulties in firefighting and search and rescue for crews.

"As a fire service we can't solve the problem of why somebody hoards, but what we can do if we come across an incident like this is work with our partner agencies to refer people to experts and ensure they get the best support available.

"We can follow up the incident with a Home Safety Check and revisit the property to ensure that the people living inside are safe and the smoke alarms are still working - if we notice materials starting to build up again we can get in touch with the family or Social Services and raise our concerns to get the most appropriate help.

"We also need to ensure that the agencies we work with are aware of hoarding and can refer any concerns about fire safety to us - so it's got to be a two-way partner agency approach."

Earlier in the year, an inquest in Derbyshire heard how a woman whose house caught fire was not found for three days due to the amount of rubbish she hoarded in the property.

It took fire crews hours to put out the fire at the house in Long Eaton in January 2011, as papers were stacked floor to ceiling and there were bags of rubbish piled up inside.

It was reported that the woman had been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder in 2005 but had declined offers of help from medical and social services staff.

Area Manager Dave Keelan, Head of GMFRS' Prevention services, said: "Our team is working hard to ensure that we are linking in with partner agencies which support vulnerable people, including those who hoard.

"We work closely with our Community Safety Education Team (CSET) to develop fire safety awareness packages which highlight specific risks affecting people who hoard and those with mental health needs.

"CSET then delivers the bespoke training to partner agencies so that they understand fire risk and can refer their service users for home safety checks."

The NHS describes hoarding as excessively collecting items that are of little or no value and not being able to throw them away, resulting in unmanageable amounts of clutter.

According to current research, one in forty of us will have a lifetime issue with hoarding.

Hoarding may accompany other mental health issues such as depression or anxiety and is often seen in people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

In some cases people fill their homes with accumulated materials to the extent that windows and doors are unusable and moving through rooms is almost impossible.

This also presents difficulties for firefighters who, if called to a house fire, would struggle to make their way through the property to recuse anyone trapped inside.

It also means that if a fire breaks out it is likely to spread much more quickly.