THE deaths of Stephanie Wojak and Ben McAuliffe in the Ellacombe fire are to be raised in Parliament today.

The house in Ellacombe Church Road where the children lived with Gill and Mike Wojak and their son Ricky did not have a fire alarm.

Torbay MP Adrian Sanders will today urge the House of Commons to call on Government to strengthen legislation to ensure all local authority and registered social landlord properties, as well as privately-rented properties, have working smoke detectors.

He is also hoping to be selected in the ballot for a Private Members Bill which he will again use to call for laws requiring landlords to fit fire alarms in rented properties.

Following the tragedy it was revealed that 25 per cent of Riviera Housing Trust homes, some 690 properties, did not have fire alarms at the time.

The trust said, despite smoke detectors not being 'a legal requirement', it 'encourages' residents to have them. It had already planned to install smoke detectors in the remaining 25 per cent of properties as part of a major home improvement programme which it brought forward immediately.

Mr Sanders said: "We were on the case in 2004 when I was on a Parliamentary select committee which made explicit recommendations to the Government on the need for hard-wired fire alarms in all existing tenanted properties, housing in multiple occupation and housing for vulnerable members of society. We recommended at least alarms fitted with 10-year batteries.

"The Government went 90 per cent towards implementing the recommendations but has never taken the last step which is to legislate on fire alarms.

"It could have saved lives. Since alarms were made obligatory by building regulations for new buildings in 2000, the number of fatalities has dropped significantly.

"It is often said there is too much legislation. But there are some things which require legislation because sadly you cannot trust everybody to accept they have a duty of care.

"Riviera Housing does not have 100 per cent fire alarms whereas other housing associations have. They are now grasping the nettle, but there are other associations elsewhere in the country and some private landlords who may not be."

Mr Sanders will also be having talks with the Association of British Insurers to see if having a working fire alarm could be a requirement of insurance.

Teignbridge MP Richard Younger-Ross said: "I will give it my full support."

Totnes MP Anthony Steen said he did not sign Early Day Motions as a matter of principle because he believed there were too many of them to achieve anything but said he was 'very supportive' of the campaign.

Mr Sanders is also meeting Devon and Somerset deputy chief fire officer Ian Gibbons at Torquay and Graham Chilvers from Torquay who has developed Tripactivator which trips a property's fuses if the alarms are activated, cutting the power supply to electrical appliances, but not lights.

Mr Sanders' Early Day Motion states: "That this House is deeply saddened by the deaths of Stephanie Wojak, aged 15, and Ben McAuliffe, aged eight...; is very concerned by reports that the housing association property in which the fire occurred did not have a smoke alarm; further notes with concern that approximately one quarter of social homes do not have smoke alarms and calls on the Government to strengthen legislation to ensure all local authority and registered social landlord properties have mains-powered smoke detectors on each floor and that privately-rented properties have working smoke detectors at the commencement of any tenancy agreement and further calls on the Government to increase its efforts to raise awareness of the benefits of smoke detectors."