James Blue of UBM Live

After two days' hard graft at Fire and Rescue 2010, James Blue was looking forward to some quality sleep in his Harrogate hotel room...

Fire and Rescue 2010 was a great experience for me – the professionalism and innovation of the UK’s fire and rescue services and their suppliers was on show for all to see.

At the end of a busy two days at the Harrogate International Centre, I was looking forward to catching up on some much needed sleep before leaving for a meeting in Runcorn the following morning.

So you can imagine my delight when I woke in my hotel at around 4.00am to the sound of a fire alarm. At first, I thought this may have been a dream, or the result of over-exposure during the preceding couple of days at the show to various alarms going off during demonstrations of equipment.

Once I had established the sound was for real, I made my way calmly along the designated escape route like a responsible evacuee, thinking this was probably a false alarm but mindful of the fact that it might not be.

So this was what it was like to be at the sharp end of the fire industry? Other than a few guests who were presumably staying on business or as part of a family break, I was greeted with the sight of several coach parties of senior citizens in their varied night attire, most of who were chatting in a highly animated way, as if this was a surprise addition to their evening entertainment. When the fire brigade arrived the excitement had reached such a fever pitch that I doubt if many of them managed to get back to sleep.

So now I really appreciate why so many people in the industry are so vocal about the need to reduce false alarms. You are now preaching to the converted!

James Blue is portfolio director for security & fire at UBM Live