A PORT firefighter is raising the alarm to make sure all babies born in Inverclyde are safe at home.

New dad Stephen Anderson has teamed up with health visitors to offer home fire safety checks to all families with newborns.

The crew manager was inspired to act after his own son was born and his own wife highlighted her own fears.

Now together with his station manager Mark Meehan they are working with MSP Stuart McMillan and Inverclyde Health & Social Care Partnership to encourage parents with newborns to take them up on the offer of a full check with advice on fire hazards.

Crew manager Stephen, 35, said: "It was when I went back to work after my son Finn was born I started to think about this.

"My wife Erin was concerned about what would happen if there was a fire in the house when I was at work.

"I realised this must be a worry for all parents.

"I think when you have a baby you do become more aware of safety in your own home.

"We want people to think about what to do in the event of a fire and ask them, is your home safe?

"Do you have an action plan in place to get out safely?

"I decided it was something that we should look in to and my station manager was fully behind us.

"As firefighters our job is to prevent fires in the first place - we want to make sure that houses are safe and smoke alarms are in working order."

At the launch of the campaign health visitor Ashley Keogh, based in Port Glasgow Health Centre, is fully behind the innovative new initiative.

She said: "This is a great idea and families are already interested.

"We meet our babies when they are only ten days old.

"We will ask parents if they are keen and then fill out the form and set it up with the fire brigade.

"At the moment parents would need to contact the fire brigade themselves.

"It is something they might want to do, but when you have a new baby things can fall further down the to-do list.

"It is so important that families are safe in their own homes."

Station manager Mr Meehan said: "It is our job in the fire service to do everything we can to prevent fires happening in the first place and this campaign set up by Stephen is a great example of this."

MSP Mr McMillan says he is pleased to support the campaign and is encouraging parents to sign up.

He said: “This initiative between the Port Glasgow fire station and local health visitors is excellent.

“I was delighted to offer my support, thank everyone involved and would like to wish them every success.

“Making more people aware of the fire risks in homes is an increasingly important part of the work of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

"This joint initiative with local health visitors is a perfect example of different aspects of the public sector working together to protect our citizens."