One-in-three Lynn fire calls false alarms
ONE-in-three emergency callouts Lynn firefighters responded to in one six-month period were false alarms generated by automated systems, new figures obtained by the Lynn News reveal.
Firefighters from the town's station were called out 718 times in the six months to the end of October 2007 and of those 260 were calls from oversensitive, badly-installed or carelessly-triggered automatic systems.
Other stations in West Norfolk responded to a further 154 false automated alarms in the period, representing a total cost of around 124,200 to the service.
The majority of the false calls were to the same five or six residential buildings and commercial premises and one town centre organisation was responsible for a quarter of the calls – putting managers at risk of prosecution.
Lynn station manager Richard Dromey said the six months had been quiet for the service overall due to some positive community safety work which has kept other problems down, meaning false automated alarms took up a lot of time comparitively, but the issue is of concern.
He said false alarms can endanger lives by breeding complacency that would mean building occupants might not evacuate in a real emergency and diverting fire services from where they are really needed.
Mr Dromey added: "We are working with our partners to try to reduce these false alarms by giving advice, but ultimately if people are not being responsible we could look to prosecute."
False alarms can be caused by anything from steam and dust to aerosols and cooking fumes and are a problem nationally, thought to cost the UK as a whole 1 billion a year.
Some fire services are bringing in new policies which mean they do not now send crews to autmoated alarms in every instance, but there are not any known plans to change systems in Norfolk.
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