We are currently consulting with members of our community around non-attendance at businesses when there is an automatic fire alarm activation and no confirmed fire.
Humberside Fire & Rescue Service receives on average over 1400 false alarm calls every year from businesses and organisations that are an unnecessary drain on emergency service resources.
Attending false alarms increases the blue light road risk to the public and our crews and reduces our ability to provide prevention and protection services to the community, train and practice for emergencies and attend genuine 999 calls.
For example, the time lost by the Service for attending these false alarms is on average 523 hours per year.
During that time crews could be achieving one of the following:
- 853 Safe and Well visits to vulnerable members of the community
- 785 fire safety advice visits to commercial premises
- 262 live training exercises ie. water rescue, high-rise, RTC extrication etc
- 262 planning visits to high risk commercial sites ie. refineries, chemical works etc
During 2015-17, HFRS received an annual average of 1661 fire or alarm related calls to commercial properties of which only 14% were actual fires which required an emergency attendance.
HFRS also want feedback from the public and business community as to whether to charge businesses for an attendance when there is no confirmed fire. The consultation will close at 12 noon on Tuesday 15 January, 2019.