Humberside Fire and Rescue Service has spent more than £6 million responding to false fire alarm call outs since 2019.
Data revealed following a Freedom of Information request made by Personal Injury Claims UK shows that the region’s fire service has been called to 18,542 instances where fire alarms have been falsely signalling a fire.
Such instances have cost the service a total of £6,128,131.
Fire alarms can be falsely set off in a variety of ways such as steam from showers, aerosol use, and fumes from cooking.
Humberside Fire and Rescue Service told LDRS: “Automatic Fire Alarms (AFAs) are designed to provide an early warning of a fire. If this leads to an unnecessary call out because there is no fire, it becomes an unwanted fire signal.
“Unwanted fire signal calls can significantly impact our Service by diverting resources that may be needed for real emergencies. This not only ties up our fire engines and firefighters but can also lead to unnecessary disruption in the community. Since 2019, we have implemented several measures to address this, including a change in policy following a public consultation.
“We continue to see a reduction in unwanted fire signals, which have reduced by 30 per cent since 2019. We encourage the public and businesses to regularly maintain their fire alarm systems and make sure they are working properly to prevent unnecessary callouts.”
This is not just an issue in the Humber region – 38 per cent of Fire and Rescue Service responses in the UK are caused by false fire alarms, costing around £1 billion nationally, according to the BRE Group.
By Andrew Spence – LDRS
