The service visits thousands of false calls every year, with faulty alarms accounting for a large number of callouts.
Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service has been called out to over 15,000 false fire alarms over the past five years, a new investigation has revealed.
Figures obtained by Personal Injury Claims UK found that the service has visited 15,283 false fire alarms since April 2019, causing a strain both financially and with the use of resources.
The data also shows that the number of annual visits by the service has stayed consistent over a five-year period, around the 3,000 mark or just over 8 incidents a day.
From 2019 to 2020, the service attended 3122 false fire alarms, which was the highest number of visits over the past five years.
In 2020/2021, this number dropped to the lowest number of this period, which was 2990 visits.
A year later, this number stayed around the same number, only increasing by 4 visits to 2994, and this was caused by a year of restrictions and lockdowns during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As these restrictions lifted, the amount of false fire alarm call outs began to rise again as, in 2022/23, the number increased to 3118 visits.
Over the past year, the service has experienced a decrease in the number of false alarm calls with the number dropping to 3059 in 2023/24.
Some common causes of false fire alarms include faulty or poorly designed equipment, poorly trained users, lack of maintenance, fumes from cooking or burnt food, steam from showers, dust from building or repair work and aerosols used near sensors.
Personal Injury Claims UK also obtained figures on how many of these false alarms were caused by faulty equipment.
While the number of faulty fire alarms has steadily decreased every year since 2019/20, the amount of callouts caused by faulty equipment has remained between 400 and 500 annually, which makes it one of the main reasons for false fire alarms.
With automatic fire alarm systems also being the cause of many false alarm visits, Staffordshire Fire and Rescue announced a policy change for responding to fire calls generated by these systems.
A statement written on the service’s website said: “We will no longer send an emergency response to calls from alarm receiving centres unless it is confirmed that there is a fire in progress.
“Premises exempt from the new policy that will continue to receive an emergency response include domestic premises, sheltered housing, residential care premises and hospitals.”
Across the country, false fire alarms continue to be the largest proportion of incidents attended at 38%.
They prove to be costly and disruptive, amounting to around £1 billion a year for the UK, according to a study by BRE Group.
It is increasingly important to minimise false alarms to ensure both the safety of individuals and the efficient use of emergency services.
Personal Injury Claims UK offers free advice and support to anyone impacted by a fire, such as suffering injuries due to faulty appliances or products.
They operate a 24-hour helpline and claim online form, which you can access on their website.
For more information please visit: https://www.staffordshirefire.gov.uk/your-safety/business-safety/false-alarms/
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