North Wales Fire and Rescue Service is using the social networking website Facebook to spread their fire safety message to university students as they start the new academic year.

Students at Bangor University are being offered the chance to take part in a competition aimed at attracting them to the fire service’s Facebook page and to be part of a fire safety campaign.

Firefighters are frequently called to halls of residence to deal with a variety of incidents, ranging from malicious false alarms to leaving cooking unattended after a night out.

On just one day this term, crews from North Wales Fire and Rescue were called out to four incidents – all of which required the evacuation of students and three of which were false alarms.

The problem of false alarms at universities was highlighted this summer when figures showed that they were among the worst offenders in Wales when it came to unwanted fire signals.

In addition to spreading the word on the social networking site, firefighters are also visiting new students on campus to deliver the message in person.

"We expect some false alarms at the beginning of a new term as people settle in to their residence, but we are concerned about repeated false alarms that tie up our resources and are particularly keen to prevent more serious incidents,” said Eilian Roberts, watch manager at Bangor fire station.

"By attracting students to our Facebook page we hope to be able to continue to engage with them throughout the year and help to build on their awareness of fire safety."

North Wales Fire and Rescue Facebook page