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False Fire Alarms

With both Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service and The Scottish Fire Services making recent comments about unwanted false alarms generated from Automatic Fire Alarms, changes are afoot.

Budgetary constraints within public sector services appear to be about to tighten further, and with false alarms quoted by Lancashire Fire & Rescue accounting for almost a third of call-outs (around 6,000), it is easy to see how they can make significant savings by reducing attendance to these incidents.

In The News

Lancashire false fire alarm reduction plans criticised (Source: FIA)
Scottish businesses could be penalised for false fire alarms (Source: FIA)

False Alarms

Your Responsibilities

Whilst internally the Fire Service will struggle with the unions over the putting lives at risk argument, the facts are, according to the Fire Safety Order, that it is the responsibility of industry to manage your own fire alarm system to ensure there are no unwanted fire alarms. Whilst this part of the legislation does not currently attract a lot of attention with regards to prosecutions, you and your industry as a whole would be wise to make sure they do not become part of the precedent.

In the past there have been many scare stories doing the rounds, such as the fire service will not attend our site if we have a false alarm or we will be charged if we have a false alarm. Whilst these in part may be possible, in the main they have been folklore so far. Fire Services will need to reduce costs very soon, and reducing turn-outs will assist with this. The law states that you have to maintain your fire alarms if you have them.

We Can Help

Ensure your alarms are regularly maintained by approved and competent maintenance engineers. Having your Fire Warden fully-trained will also help with maintenance of your internal systems.

For details on fire safety training and fire alarm maintenance call us on 01524 784356. Alternatively you can use our contact form or e-mail us.

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