Problems For Fire Service

Unwanted fire signals (also known as false alarms) place a large burden on Fire and Rescue Service resources.

Fire engines and firefighters attending a false alarm, may be needed at a real emergency such as a real fire or road traffic accident.

False alarms may impact on critical fire-fighter training, in addition to distracting from important community safety work. They might also cause on-call firefighters to be needlessly called away from their normal place of work.

How much of a problem are they for Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service?

This type of false alarm is a cause for concern for Fire and Rescue Services as it dilutes fire cover available for other incidents, endangers public safety and fire crew safety when making a speedy attendance and is a waste of money. 

In 2009-2010, Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service attended approximately 2,400 unwanted fire signals (false alarms). 

This cost the Service 800 hours (or over a month) in dealing solely with unwanted fire signals.

At times when fire-fighting resources are particularly stretched, such as very hot summers, false alarms may impact on our resources even more.