Firefighters in Sutton have been called out to nearly 4000 fire alarms over the course of the last five years.

Between 2011 and 2015, crews from Sutton and Wallington attended 3,817 false alarms, nearly 3000 of which were as a result of automatic fire alarms.

The figures emerged after a Freedom of Information request by the Sutton Guardian.

In January 2014, LFB began charging building owners for every tenth false alarm to the property in a 12-month period.

A spokesman for the London Fire Brigade said: "The charging scheme has been introduced as part of the approach to reduce unnecessary calls and encourage better management and maintenance of automatic fire alarm systems.

"Even when appropriate measures are in place, false alarms will occur.

"However, a false alarm is not necessarily a reason in itself to call the emergency services and if they occur regularly, action should be taken to prevent the brigade being called out unnecessarily.

"The LFB is not required to attend calls that are made solely because a fire alarm system has actuated.

"We do attend there is a slight chance - approximately three per cent- a false alarm may became a fire and firefighters may be needed."

Original source

The Sutton Guardian