THE Queensland Government and Queensland Fire and Rescue Service have launched a $600,000 campaign aimed at reminding people about the importance of smoke alarms, particularly photoelectric alarms.

The campaign will consist of a mail-out to every Queensland home and post office box as well as advertising.

Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts said the 2011 Report on Government Services showed that only about 90% of Queensland homes had a working smoke alarm fitted, despite it being the law.

"Last year we actually saw a decrease in the proportion of Queensland homes fitted with a smoke alarm - in 2008-09 90.1% of homes had a smoke alarm, but in 2009-10 that figure had slipped slightly to 89.2%. This simply isn't good enough," Mr Roberts said.

"House fires can be deadly. Tragically 18 people have lost their lives in residential house fires in Queensland since the start of this year, including the devastating loss of 11 lives in a fire at Slack's Creek around six weeks ago.

"The government and the fire service are launching a new $600,000 campaign with two goals - to increase the proportion of Queensland homes that have at least one working smoke alarm and to promote photoelectric alarms."

Mr Roberts said that in the past four months there had been 671 residential fires in Queensland.

Fire Commissioner Lee Johnson said more people died in fires at night and evidence was growing that photoelectric smoke alarms were more likely to save lives in a wider range of fires.