On the bus recently, I noticed that a local church had been pulled down and was in the process of being replaced by a timber framed building.

It was an awesome feat of engineering, all those joints and the yellowish coloured wood made a marvellous image against the blue of the sky.

However, a recent edition of the BSI Group's Fire Newsletter drew my attention to a new campaign to raise awareness of the fire risks posed by such construction sites.

Unveiled by Allianz, the initiative will highlight a series of incidents that have taken place on developments in recent years.

Thousands of safety leaflets are being issued by the insurance specialist about the issue, outlining the minimum site safety standards currently in place in a bid to reduce the frequency of blazes, with a list of dos and don'ts included.

The aim of the campaign is to encourage the rollout of adequate fire detection and prevention systems in the design and planning stages of new structures.

Underwriting and Operations Manager at Allianz Engineering, Martin Ball, said: "We hope this campaign will create awareness amongst brokers and help clients to put the fire security of their sites and the physical assets higher up the safety agenda."

I have to admit that there were protective barriers around the site so it was impossible to see what systems had been put in place to guard against the risk of fire but, situated in the middle of a densely built up area, the consequences of a blaze could be very serious.