| The changes were approved for implementation by North Yorkshire Fire Authority in September 2014 |
Automatic fire alarms help to keep premises and their occupants safe by providing an early warning of a possible fire and enabling people inside the building to evacuate. However, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue is alerted to a large number of false alarms every year. Responding to all these alarms is a huge waste of resources.
From 1st April 2015 response to automatic fire alarms will be changing in order to reduce the number of false alarms attended by the Service. These changes were approved for implementation by North Yorkshire Fire Authority in September 2014, following consultation. Details of the changes are below:
1. They will not attend automatic fire alarms between 08:00 and 18:00 at premises where people do not sleep, unless a fire has been confirmed. They will still attend automatic fire alarms outside of these hours.
2. They will send one fire engine to attend automatic fire alarms at premises where people sleep and some other higher risk premises (e.g. significant heritages site and sites with high risk manufacturing processes or storage) at all times.
3. They may not attend specific premises where there are repeated false alarms from automatic fire alarms and where the causes of these are not being addressed. (This will be an option of last resort after dialogue with the responsible person.) Alternatively, and with the agreement of the owner or occupier, an attendance may still be made but a charge may be levied.