Campaign to reduce false call outs launched
NICOLA FINDLAY
The fire service has launched a campaign to reduce the thousands of false alarms it attends each year.
According to the latest statistics, firefighters responded to a total of 28,713 such incidents over the course of 2019 – resulting in around 54,000 unnecessary blue light journeys.
Fire alarm systems are designed to provide an early warning of fire so that members of the public have ample time to exit a building and make their way to a place of safety.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of signals from these systems are not generated by fire but other causes such as a fault in the system or cooking, steam, dust, smoking or vaping.
This can lead to crews being turned out unnecessarily to what is a false alarm – otherwise known as an unwanted fire alarm signal (UFAS) – and has sparked the “Be Aware” campaign.
The 28,713 UFAS calls in 2019 represented 31 per cent of all incidents attended by Scottish Fire and Rescue Service within non-domestic properties such as hotels, shops, residential care homes and hospitals.
Assistant Chief Officer Ross Haggart is the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s Director of Prevention and Protection.
He said: “We as a service encourage the use of automatic fire detection as it helps save lives and protect buildings.
“However, false alarms, such as those that are caused by system faults or as a consequence of unintended actions, are an unnecessary drain on our resources and present undue risk for our firefighters and the public from appliances responding to these calls under blue light conditions.
“For businesses and other organisations it can result in an impact on costs including lost revenue and the real danger of staff becoming complacent.”
He added: “That is why we are launching this campaign to encourage members of the public and staff to ‘be aware’ of their actions in buildings and how these can help reduce false alarms and prevent fire crews from responding to UFAS incidents.
“This will greatly assist organisations in managing their fire alarm systems to reduce business disruption and the number of unnecessary blue light journeys.”