Firefighters are banking that 'sex sells' as they try to get across an important safety message to Oxford students.

Oxfordshire Fire Service is attending Freshers' Fairs at Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University to get across their message to new students.

Firefighters will hand out packets of condoms bearing the fire safety message: "Let this be the only fire you light tonight!!!"

Chief fire officer John Parry said he hoped the condoms would get the message across when a soberly written warning might be ignored.

The aim of the campaign is to prevent fires in student accommodation, which are often started by discarded cigarettes or during cooking. Mr Parry said: "Every year 10,000 people are injured and 400 killed in fires. Most happen in houses of multiple occupation -- the sort students are in. It's our job to alert them to the dangers. "

The fire service is working in conjunction with condom manufacturers and safer sex promoters Condomania.

Alan Hoar, head of community fire safety in the county, said: "The aim is to protect this potentially vulnerable group of people.

"It will also assist our colleagues in health professions by highlighting a wider safety message. Current reports highlight sexual health and the worrying statistics relating to young people within our target group."