Beginning this month, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) will team up with partners from the Fire Industry Association (FIA), Association of British Insurers (ABI), British Approvals for Fire Equipment (BAFE), the Building Research Establishment (BRE), the CBRE Group, CS Todd & Associates Ltd and Glasgow City Council, to undertake ground breaking research into false alarms. 

This multi-agency partnership will analyse the causes of false alarms in buildings, and proposed solutions to prevent them in the future. 

“The cost of these unwanted false alarm signals to both businesses and fire and rescue services is estimated to be around £1billion per year,” says SFRS, “and due to the universal nature of fire alarm systems, the outcome of this work will have the potential to impact within the UK and across Europe. This includes the possibility of influencing future standards and codes of practice in respect of automatic fire alarm systems.”

Scottish Fire & Rescue are one of only few who still attend all alarm signals received via an alarm receiving centre and therefore we initially approached them with this idea. The FIA are delighted that the Scottish Business Forum bought into the idea and that so many partners have joined in to provide funding and expertise.

Scottish Fire & Rescue are one of only few who still attend all alarm signals received via an alarm receiving centre and therefore we initially approached them with this idea. The FIA are delighted that the Scottish Business Forum bought into the idea and that so many partners have joined in to provide funding and expertise.

We look forward to reviewing the report and then working on ‘what next’.

Assistant Chief Officer (ACO) Lewis Ramsay, the SFRS Director of Prevention and Protection, added: “Unwanted false alarm signals are a significant issue for Fire and Rescue Services so it’s important we join with our partners to see them reduced.

“Over the past three years Scotland’s firefighters have been called to in excess of 100,000 of these incidents, which equates to over 40 per cent of all the incidents we attend. Not only is there a substantial financial cost but attending needless incidents also means firefighters and resources are taken away from their communities.”

As well as researching false alarms, the project will also promote the benefits of having automatic fire alarm systems installed in buildings. This will be done by studying fires where systems have detected them and raised the alarm. 

The project will involve two SFRS Watch Managers seconded from Glasgow’s group of Fire Safety Enforcement Officers who will work alongside a fire alarm industry expert to gather live intelligence on incidents that involve the actuation of fire alarm systems.

When the team has completed its research a formal report will be produced by the Business Engagement Forum subgroup. It is expected to include recommendations useful to businesses, the fire protection industry, SFRS and other Fire and Rescue Services as they develop practical measures to reduce the problem caused by unwanted false alarm signals. 

ACO Ramsay added: “The project involves the same partnership that helped develop the new SFRS Unwanted False Alarm Signals Policy, which will replace the eight different policies used by the antecedent services.

“Cutting the number of unwanted false alarm signal incidents will reduce financial costs to ourselves and businesses, and reduce the demand placed on a community’s fire and rescue resources.”

Martin Duggan, FIA General Manager says: This year the FIA launched an ambitious plan to allocate 5% of its turnover annually to research projects which will be of benefit to the industry as a whole. £85k has been set aside for 2014/5 and one of the first projects signed off by the FIA Board was a live study of false alarms. We know that it is not always possible for a Fire & Rescue crew to establish exactly what caused an unwanted fire signal when they turn up on site and an easy option is to record it as an equipment issue. Whilst there have been significant improvements in the reduction of false alarm numbers, we the industry, want to see an even greater reduction and a better understanding by all can only help us plan for this challenge.

"Scottish Fire & Rescue are one of only few who still attend all alarm signals received via an alarm receiving centre and therefore we initially approached them with this idea. The FIA are delighted that the Scottish Business Forum bought into the idea and that so many partners have joined in to provide funding and expertise.

"We look forward to reviewing the report and then working on ‘what next’."

In a bid to remove potential fire hazards, commercial buildings and non-domestic premises in Scotland are already forced to carry out a fire safety risk assessment under the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, in conjunction with the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006, if the assessment is thought to have been carried out to an insufficient extent, the enforcing authority has the power to prosecute the Dutyholder.

Original source and more information

Scottish Fire & Rescue Service