Chip pans are a major cause of fires in Scotland

Entitled Don't Give Fire A Home, the adverts will be shown in Scotland over the next four weeks and for a further six weeks from 18 December.

The campaign is being run by the Scottish Executive and the Scottish fire brigades.

People in Scotland are three times more likely to die in house fires those living in England and Wales, according to executive statistics.

Deputy Justice Minister Hugh Henry said the adverts were designed to "challenge our complacency".

The chilling reality is that you are more likely to suffer a house fire in Scotland than be burgled Hugh Henry Deputy Justice Minister

Launching the campaign, Mr Henry said many Scots did not pay enough attention to chip pan fire stories because they did not think it could happen to them.

He said: "But the chilling reality is that you are more likely to suffer a house fire in Scotland than be burgled.

"Scotland has an appalling record of fire fatalities. Just because your house is fitted with a smoke alarm doesn't mean you can forget about the fire.

"You may think that a smoke alarm will save your family but every year the fire service attends fatal house fires where smoke alarms were fitted but perhaps where the battery was flat or removed."

'Ordinary situations'

The subject matter of the 20-second adverts feature "very ordinary situations", the minister added.

They depict fires being caused by items such as mobile phone chargers, candles and hair tongs.

There were 60,000 fires across Scotland in 2001 and 103 fire fatalities.

Kenny Ross, of the Strathclyde Fire Brigades' Union (FBU), said it welcomed the fire safety initiative.

He said it was important to increase public awareness about the dangers of house fires, particularly since fire injuries and fatalities were higher in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK.