Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue visit over 13,000 false and faulty fire alarms since 2019
Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service have been called out to over 13,000 false fire alarms over the past five years, a new investigation has revealed.
Figures obtained by Personal Injury Claims UK revealed that the service has visited 13,627 false fire alarms since April 2019, causing a strain both financially and on the use of resources.
Stuart Auger, Head of Response at Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue, said: “False alarms cause significant disruption to our training, fire safety and community safety work and, crucially, while firefighters are investigating the cause of the alarm, they cannot attend emergencies where lives are at risk.”
The data also shows that the number of annual visits by the service has been between 2,400 and 3,048 over a five-year period, which is around 20 incidents a day.
From 2019 to 2020, the service attended 2393 false fire alarms, which was the lowest number of visits over the past five years.
A year later, this number increased to 2,571, even despite a year of restrictions and lockdowns during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the restrictions lifted, the number of false fire alarm call outs continued to rise as, in 2022/23, the number increased to 2,840 visits.
Over the past year, the service has experienced another jump in false alarm calls, with the total reaching 3,048 in 2023/24.
Stuart added: “These figures clearly show that we are responding to more false alarm calls across the county. Work, however, is underway to review our approach to dealing with these calls to ensure that our resources are used where there is a genuine risk to life.”