A fire and rescue service has released figures showing it has dealt with the highest number of false alarms from automatic equipment in five years.
Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service received 2,086 false calls in 2009/2010, representing 39% of all incidents. Both the number of false calls and the proportion of the total number of incidents they represent have risen in four out of the past five years.
The report by chief fire officer David Wynne to the Highlands and Islands Fire Board estimates the cost of attending false calls at around £235,000. It says the fire service is producing real time reports for district staff to enable them to target offending organisations and work with them to reduce the number of false alarm triggers.
“We have reoccurring problems in multi-alarmed premises mostly due to a badly placed detector or ones that haven’t been installed properly,” said Scott Hay, the fire service’s head of community risk management.
