False fire alarms drop by nearly half after university investment

False fire alarms at student accommodation in St Andrews have nearly halved.

The fire service has been working with St Andrews University to prevent unwanted call-outs triggered by things like aerosols and cooking.

From April to September last year, there were 48 callouts to student halls compared to 95 in the same period last year.

In addition, unwanted call-outs to university buildings fell from 25 to 11.

Councillor Margaret Kennedy, who is the council’s Liberal Democrat community safety spokesperson, said: “This is something which has been a huge drain on resources for many years with one of the main sources of the figures being university residency buildings.

“I am pleased to see the targeted approach officers are taking in challenging those in roles of responsibility to address the causes of unwanted alarm activation, ensuring that our extremely important, and expensive, firefighting resources are not being abused.

“Fire officers from Fife have influenced this agenda considerably over the years, even taking it to manufacturers of alarm systems where there were clear function faults contributing to the overall figures.”

The university said it had “heavily invested” in upgrading fire systems.

Station manager Steven Michie from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said measures taken included replacing smoke detectors with devices detecting smoke and heat, and relocating safety equipment.