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London Fire Brigade introduces new policy to reduce false alarm attendance

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A London Fire Brigade appliance. Photo credit: Graham Mitchell via Flickr, licensed under the CC BY 2.0 license
Photo credit: Graham Mitchell via Flickr, licensed under the CC BY 2.0 license

London Fire Brigade (LFB) has changed its approach to how it responds to automatic fire alarms.

Starting yesterday, 29 October, the Brigade will stop attending automatic fire alarms in most non-residential buildings, such as office blocks or industrial estates, during daytime hours – unless a call is also received from a person reporting a fire.
 
The brigade says the change will allow its firefighters to spend more time and resources on other priorities, such as working on fire prevention with local communities and increased operational training. LFB will continue to always respond to all automatic fire alarms in residential buildings and in schools, nurseries, hospitals, care homes, listed heritage sites and other exempt premises.

LFB says that false alarms make up 40% of the calls it receives and that less than one per cent of these calls are due to genuine fires.
 
The new policy will only apply between the hours of 7am and 8.30pm. Outside of these hours, the Brigade will attend all automatic fire alarms in any building.  
 
The changes are being introduced in London following a public consultation held last year with members of the public, businesses, partners, firefighters and other Brigade staff. 

More information about the change can be found on the LFB’s Automatic Fire Alarms Policy FAQ page.

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