SIXTEEN people died needlessly in house fires across West Yorkshire over the last 12 months.

Fire chiefs have revealed that the total death toll for the year was 25 - but say 16 of those lives should not have been lost.

They say the number of people dying in fires in the county is continuing to fall.

The average was 40 a year a decade ago.

In recent years, frontline firefighters have become involved in safety work in the heart of the community, including doing free home safety checks.

This has helped to bring the death toll down - but the figures seem to have flattened out.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer David Monks said: "Our community fire safety work has had spectacular success.

"However, the figures are now beginning to level out.

"This indicates that our efforts must become better targeted and increasingly sophisticated if they are to influence harder-to-reach audiences, such as the very elderly and infirm."

Figures show that older people - perhaps because of disability or frailty - are at greatest risk from fire in their homes.

West Yorkshire's firefighters now aim to carry out 10,000 free fire safety checks in the homes of people aged 65 and over and install smoke alarms where necessary.

They will pay particular attention to the use of domestic appliances and even consider installing sprinklers in the houses of the most vulnerable people.

Smoke alarms are now reckoned to save about 80 lives a year, said Mr Monks.

He says domestic sprinklers could have saved 10 of the lives lost in West Yorkshire last year.

He added: "The difference between alarms and sprinklers is that one will give a vital early warning of fire, but the other will actually fight a blaze before it can get out of control.

"That's why we are so particularly keen on sprinklers in residential homes and schools, where there are larger numbers of people and potential problems around safe evacuation."

Mr Monks said the fire service needed to work more closely with organisations such as the health service, councils, police and community groups.

He added: "We have a community fire safety record second to none, but there is a limit to what can be done on our own.

"Fire service modernisation is not just about changing the way we work, but about re-evaluating who we work with."

He believes this will also help to reduce malicious alarms and needless automatic fire alarms.