Two hoax fire calls a day cost brigade £1.4m

VANDALS deliberately triggered hundreds of false fire alarms in Greater Manchester last year – costing the cash-strapped fire service more than a million pounds.

The latest figures from the Home Office have revealed that there were 706 malicious false fire alarms made in our area in 2018/19 – or nearly two a day.

A false fire alarm is considered malicious when a person calls 999 to report a fire or triggers an alarm knowing full well there is no real blaze.

Making a hoax emergency call is illegal, and if you are caught and prosecuted you could face a fine of up to £5,000 or six months in prison. While they may seem like nothing more than an inconvenience, they divert resources from genuine emergencies, endangering lives – and carry risks to local road users.

In fact, responding to an incident costs fire services £1,970 on average, according to official government estimates – meaning the total bill for hoax calls in Greater Manchester came in at £1.4 million in the last year. On top of malicious hoax calls, there were a further 13,030 fires falsely reported in our area in 2018/19.

These false alarms can include incidents where someone accidentally sets off an alarm, an alarm malfunctions or is triggered by something innocuous like burnt food, or a 999 call is made incorrectly but with good intent.

False alarms make up more than four in every 10 incidents attended by Greater Manchester fire service.

They cost around £27.1m in total last year.

While the number of deliberate and malicious false alarms has dropped slightly in the last year, the total number of false alarms has been rising.

It now stands at the highest level seen in the last eight years.

The rise in false alarms comes at a time when the service has seen cuts to firefighter numbers – although the workforce has increased slightly in the last year. There are currently the equivalent of 1,367 firefighters working fulltime with Greater Manchester fire service – up from 1,291 in 2018, but down from 1,910 in 2010. There were 7,160 malicious false fire alarms made across England in 2018/19 – costing fire services an estimated £14.1m.

There were a further 223,905 false alarms that were not malicious, bringing the total cost of false alarms to an estimated £455.2m nationally. Meanwhile, the number of firefighters continues to drop, with 32,233 currently working fulltime across the country, the lowest number seen since at least 2002, when the figures begin.

Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said: “Our communities need more firefighters – and the government needs to reflect the work they do in their pay cheques.” Matt Wrack, FBU