Canterbury students are the target of a fire service campaign to ensure flats are fitted with working smoke alarms.
"We've identified students as an at-risk group within our community," Canterbury Fire Servic's Kyle Johnston says.
"Students either haven't got smoke alarms or their smoke alarms aren't working. You've got the niggly ones where they've taken the batteries out and keep beeping at odd hours of the day, sometimes they're just not even installed."
New law introduced on July 1 states the responsibility of installing smoke alarms now falls on landlords. There must be one working smoke alarm in a hall or similar area, within three metres of a bedroom door. However, it's the tenants' responsibility to replace batteries and notify landlords of defects.
Nursing student Felicity Ryan lives with five others. Their flat was fitted with six new alarms this morning.
"We're feeling pretty grateful that the service is able to do this for us," she says. "We just noticed our fire alarms weren't working."
Ms Ryan says six different groups cook in their flat so smoke alarms are important.
Fifty Canterbury flats have signed up and the fire service will be working through the week to install them. As many as six smoke alarms, which cost up to $50 each, are being installed in each flat.
"Smoke alarms are your only voice when you are asleep, you can't smell smoke. The best form of early detection is with smoke alarms," Mr Johnston says.
Mr Johnston said 80 percent of fires they attend don't have smoke alarms installed or they're not working.
Three Dunedin students were taken to hospital after jumping from their burning flat earlier this year. It was later discovered there were no working smoke alarms in the flat.
Newshub.