Michael Matheson: "Lives have been saved"

Mr Matheson said the figure is unnecessarily high, and would bring a member's bill before the Scottish Parliament.

The bill would force residential homes to install sprinkler systems when they upgrade their premises.

He said: "Scotland has one of the highest levels of domestic fire deaths in the world and many of these deaths could have been prevented.

"Our elderly and disabled are at particular risk from fire and Scotland has certain types of housing, such as tenements, which make tackling fires much more difficult.

"This Bill proposes to introduce residential fire sprinklers in order to assist in ending Scotland's unnecessary fire deaths.

"A number of countries now install these sprinklers as a matter of course and the result is that lives have been saved."

Jeff Ord: Focus on reducing death rate

Jeff Ord, of the Fire Officers' Association, said the move would help cut the number of fire related deaths.

"On average, we are losing something like 107 people per year in Scotland because of fires," he said.

"So you can say on about two per week, and with residential sprinklers we can bring that down to virtually zero."

Ultimately, Mr Matheson said he hoped that all new buildings in Scotland would fit the devices.