False alarms also cost the taxpayer around £1bn every year. Although numbers of false alarms have fallen over the last 15 years, it’s still a huge problem.
The average response time to non-domestic building fires in England in 2014-15 was eight minutes 28 seconds, an increase of 21 seconds from the previous year, according a recent government report. False alarms certainly don’t help this.
Put together by Hochiki Europe the following infographic shares the shocking stats about false fire alarms, the primary causes and damaging impacts as well as the solutions to the false alarm problem.
Download the Fire Safety in 2023 eBook, keeping you up to date with the biggest news and prosecution stories from around the industry. Chapters include important updates such as the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and an overview of the new British Standard for the digital management of fire safety information.
Plus, we explore the growing risks of lithium-ion battery fires and hear from experts in disability evacuation and social housing.
Most F&RS can hardly claim that false alarms are the bane of their lives, as very few respond to unconfirmed calls, except from residential or institutional buildings. Businesses in London are lucky to have this response and deserve to be fined when they abuse it with excessive false calls. In many parts of England and Wales, a very well managed fire system with no false alarm history is no better credited than the the local false alarm hot spots. Only Bucks seem to have a sensible policy o attending all calls with an educational visit after if needed. The merged… Read more »
Hochiki have produced an excellent infographic, where it cant be doubted a well managed intelligent system fitted by an expert will always be the solution to unwanted fire signals, with local fire and rescue services assisting business managing their risk. Suggesting charging hospitals some £499,380 appears not only to fly in the face of all advice from HM Government Dept for Regulatory Delivery and could be argued to be not proportionate. With an integrated approach from alarm installers, intelligent fire detection systems, alarm receiving companies, business and fire and rescue service this will generally ensure unwanted fire signals continue to… Read more »