A local councillor is on a mission to improve fire safety in his diverse south-west Sydney community, where recent surveys indicate 80 per cent of the homes do not have working smoke alarms.
In Councillor George Zakhia's in Sydney's southwest, more than 40 per cent of residents were born overseas and a quarter of them cannot speak English.
He said he was shocked when the results of an anonymous survey showed that eight out of every 10 homes in Lakemba
“There's an anonymous survey that's done within our city, which is Lakemba, and believe it or not, 80 per cent of the actual city, they don't have one or they've got one that doesn't work,” he said.