Businesses could be charged more than £200 for non-emergency call-outs in new, tough measures by fire and rescue services.
It comes after the coalition granted councils and fire services new powers to impose fines on repeat offenders – businesses that have several false fire alarm call-outs in a year.
As part of the plans, the London Fire Brigade has revealed it will charge building and lift owners £260 for attending three non-emergency lift calls at that property inside a year.
It will come into effect on 1 April.
At the moment, the fire service charges on the tenth false alarm. Since the charge was introduced at the end of 2009, London firefighters saved £1 million by attending 3,640 fewer lift releases.
However, the fire brigade says the number of call-outs is still far too high, and hopes that clamping down on businesses will encourage the maintenance of fire alarms and other services inside the building.
Life-threatening implications
Tougher penalties were criticised by the Fire Industry Association last month, which said that businesses may be tempted to switch off fire alarms altogether to avoid incurring fines.
In an open letter signed by the FIA and the British Security Industry Association, CEO Graham Ellicott, said: “If fire and rescue services charge for false alarm attendance they run the risk that companies will switch off their fire alarm systems to avoid being fined”, which could have potentially life-threatening implications.
