Review of fire service response to automatic alarms

Changes could save costs and protect firefighter morale

Devon’s fire service is questioning whether it should respond to call outs to automatic alarms, which overwhelmingly don’t require action when crews arrive.

In the past five years, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service has responded to more than 55,000 automatic fire alarms, yet only 42 needed hoses deploying. That’s equivalent to just 0.08 per cent.

Automatic fire alarms are commonly used by businesses or in buildings such as hotels, hospitals and shopping centres, and rather than just letting people in the premises know about the potential danger, they call the fire service.

Cllr Simon Coles, chair of Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue authority, which oversees the service, said a consultation wiill review how the approach to automatic alarms.

“I think it is a very sensible move because we have to make better use of our staff time,” he said.

“We are an on-call service, and the majority of our workforce have to ask to leave their primary employer to answer an emergency callout.

“We will always attend domestic fires and if signs of fire are reported somewhere, that has not changed, but what we are trying to avoid is organisations that allow us to turnout because it is cheaper to pay a call out fee to the fire service than renewing their alarm system.”

A fire service spokesperson said charges only apply to unwarrented fire alarms and costs are claimed at the last stage of a four-stage process which begins after either two or more false alarms from the same premises within four weeks or three or more within 26 weeks.

The charge is £440.68 per appliance, per hour, plus a £28 administration charge. This only costs as the service isn’t allowed to make a profit from attending false alarms.

The consultation offers respondents five options, ranging from no change through to not responding to any automatic fire alarms in industrial or commercial properties, or retail and public areas, unless there is a confirmed sign of fire.

The latter option would also see the service not responding to automatic alarms at residential properties during weekday day times unless there is a confirmed sign of fire. Night time and weekend automatic fire alarm calls for these types of premises would still get a response.

For domestic households, though, there would be no change regardless of the option chosen, with automatic fire alarms responded to day or night.

Cllr Coles said although business owners are charged for call outs, it doen’t cover the costs. And he is concerned about firefighters leaving the service if they had to respond to large numbers of false alarms.

“It is causing a drain on our finances but it also causes retained firefighters to wonder why they are doing the job,” he said.

“It doesn’t take long for people’s willingness to erode if they are having to leave their main jobs to respond to such calls.

“We recognise there is a problem, and the likes of factories and shops need to update their fire alarm systems.”

The consultation runs until Wednesday 9 April, with focus groups and public events scheduled. The survey is available on the fire service’s website.