Tuesday, 18 January, 2005, 11:32 GMT
Fire chiefs in false alarms alert

False alarm calls from companies in North Yorkshire are costing the fire service hundreds of thousands of pounds a year, brigade bosses have warned.

The fire service has launched a campaign among local employers to reduce the number of false call-outs.

"The number of automatic fire alarms is on the rise and so is the cost of responding to false alarms," said City of York group manager Graham Buckle.

In York alone, such calls were costing more than £250,000 a year, he said.

Huge scale

More than £35,000 of that was accounted for by the University of York, which had about 200 false alarm calls a year.

Each half-hour call-out costs about £180, the service said.

"When you add in all the companies in Harrogate and Scarborough as well, you get a good idea of the huge scale of the costs we are dealing with across the brigade area," said Mr Buckle.

The fire service has already reduced the number of fire engines deployed to calls from automatic alarms in an attempt to cut costs.

Now it is planning to work more closely with companies who are "repeat offenders" to train them how to better manage their fire alarm systems.