FIRE chiefs have developed a model house to teach children how to escape from a burning building.

Community fire safety bosses at Cleveland Fire Brigade built the model, which is the size of a doll's house, as part of an interactive science project.

It will show 4,000 children in the brigade area how smoke can hinder escape from a burning house.

A smoke machine shows how it is not only flames that are dangerous in a fire.

The house will be used to highlight the national fire service campaign called How Would You All Get Out Alive? - which runs until July 6.

The brigade is reinforcing the fire safety messages that the public will see on TV with the distribution of campaign leaflets throughout the community.

Mark Whelan, director of operations and community services, said: "We know from research that fire escape in the home is not an easy message to get across, yet it is one that needs regular repetition.

"In 2001, more than 3,000 people were injured in Britain when they discovered a fire, more than 1,000 were injured when they were trapped by smoke and almost 1,000 people were injured because they were asleep when fire broke out - the single biggest cause of death by fire.

"Previous campaigns have encouraged people to fit smoke alarms, and 80 per cent of the population now have them, but unfortunately statistics show that 30 per cent of alarms do not work.

"This national TV advertising campaign focuses on escape from a fire and we have been able to tailor our partnership science project for young people to highlight this. Fire safety and risk education are vital life skills for all children and experience suggests that lessons learnt are often taken into the home.

"We therefore aim to involve up to 4,000 youngsters in our house model project to show them how smoke can affect escape from a burning building, and the importance of establishing a fire action plan in the home.