Oldham Fire Safety: GMFRS 2026 Guide

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service has opened bookings for free home fire safety checks across Oldham, part of a wider push to cut deaths as household budgets tighten and winter heating bills climb.

Each visit takes about 45 minutes. Crews fit smoke alarms where needed, check escape routes, and talk families through bedtime routines such as closing internal doors and switching off plugs. The service is aimed at anyone over 65, parents with children under five, or residents who smoke indoors, but any household can ask.

Alongside the home visits, GMFRS reminded residents it enforces petroleum storage rules for every petrol station and industrial site in Greater Manchester, and it holds the keys to 32,000 street hydrants, mapped and tested year-round so crews can hit pressure targets when a pump arrives.

The brigade's safety calendar also warns against open-water swimming in Oldham's reservoirs and canals, noting that cold shock can take hold within 60 seconds even on mild spring days. Leaflets are being handed out at Chadderton and Failsworth schools after two near-misses last autumn.

A lesser-known strand of the programme, ACT Early, lets neighbours, teachers, or youth workers refer someone they fear is being drawn into extremism. Trained officers then visit the family, separate fact from rumour, and open a voluntary support plan. GMFRS stresses the step is about help, not criminalisation.