Counting the cost of false alarms

Of this total, 272,000 were actual fires, of which around 24,000 were in premises classified by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) as ‘other buildings’, i.e. not ‘dwellings’, a category that includes healthcare facilities (representing a 4% fall on 2010-2011). HEJ looks behind the statistics, and at the possibility that some fire services could, in future, charge healthcare providers that persistently report incidents that turn out to be false alarms.

Although the costs attributable to false fire alarms can vary significantly, it is widely acknowledged – and this was a major talking point at the recent roundtable event held by Apollo Fire Detectors and Static Systems in conjunction with IHEEM (see pages 31-37 of this issue) – that such incidents are both a considerable drain on the public purse, and on the time and resources of fire and rescue services the length and breadth of the UK. As a result, a number of fire services have begun either to levy, or to consider levying, charges on ‘repeat offenders’, in terms of bodies or organisations, including NHS Trusts, who report fires that transpire to be ‘false alarms’ exceeding a predetermined number of instances within a set period, usually a year. In March this year, the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority launched a public consultation on its Draft Fifth London Safety Plan, which sets out, as the organisation puts it, ‘how the Authority will continue to keep Londoners safe over the next three years’. Included in the Plan (the deadline for comments is 5.00 pm on 28 May 2013) are details of how the Authority ‘proposes to make savings worth £28.8 million’, including through closing a number of fire stations, removing and re-locating fire engines, and reducing the number of retained firefighting staff (It can be viewed online at: www.london-fire.gov.uk/lsp5.asp).

Recovering costs