SCHOOLS TOP FALSE FIRE ALARMS TALLY

Care homes, schools, hotels and hospitals account for the majority of unwanted fire alarm signals (UFAS) in Perth and Kinross.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) was called out to 140 UFAS incidents from a total of 251 false alarms between January 1 and March 31, 2021.

An update on the final quarter of 2020/21 was given to a virtual meeting of Perth and Kinross Council’s housing and communities committee on Monday, May 31.

In total, UFAS accounted for 31 per cent of the SFRS’s total operational demand and were the cause of 56 per cent of all false alarms in Perth and Kinross from January 1 to March 31, 2021.

The report to councillors said the SFRS investigates the cause of every UFAS and uses every incident it attends as“an opportunity to educate the duty holder about the impact UFAS has on their businesses, the community and the fire and rescue service.”

Between January 1 to March 31 the Perth and Kinross fire and rescue service attended UFAS incidents most often in the following properties:

•Home, nursing/care, school, sheltered offices - 63

•Secondary schools - 44 •Primary schools - 40 •Hotels/other accommodation - 31

•Hospitals - 30

The report said:“Due to the continued increase in these alarm actuations, the SFRS last year launched a national project to analyse the type of false alarms was attend and our response to these incidents.

“We are looking overall at our response options which will continue with a full stakeholder consultation mid summer.”