The effort — which has been praised by an Executive minister — follows a string of high-profile incidents across the city involving dumped settees and other combustible items.

“Refuse is a huge issue for us and we have been working with the wardens and cleansing department on this,” said community fire safety watch manager Robert Butter, of Tayside Fire and Rescue.

“People are dumping things like old settees and mattresses around tenements.

“They are putting lives at risk.

“We have been doing leaflet drops and giving people action plans for what to do in the event of a fire.

“But we have also been telling them a fire risk has been identified at their property and asking them to get it cleared up.”

The senior firefighter said they had identified 10 specific addresses with illegal dumping and had already enjoyed some success in having the detritus removed.

Site visits have been carried out in conjunction with the council’s environmental health and Antisocial Behaviour Team.

Deputy justice minister Hugh Henry said the fire service had a role to play in tackling anti-social behaviour, in partnership with other community agencies.

Praising the tenement targeting scheme, he said, “Going in and getting the tenants or owners to remove their rubbish is about saying to them this is antisocial, but it’s also life-threatening.”

Emergency services have long been concerned that messages about not leaving combustible materials in communal areas are not hitting home.

“In addition to being an attraction for young fire-raisers, items such as old suites often produce thick black smoke, which can choke inhabitants and impede their escape from a burning building.

Dundee City Council administration leader Councillor Jill Shimi said, “There is no excuse for people dumping rubbish and putting lives at risk because the council operates a very efficient special collection service for uplifting bulky items.

“The council has proved it is prepared to use the powers available to it to deal with all kinds of anti-social behaviour.

“We will continue to work with our partners in other agencies to tackle the problems that affect people in our communities.”

n It emerged yesterday that nearly half of all fires tackled by Tayside Fire and Rescue are started deliberately — and the national picture is even worse.

The service said that curbing antisocial behaviour was the key to solving the problem.

In one area of Dundee where a large number of deliberate fires had been detected, the multi-agency approach had helped reduce the incidence of fires by 40%.