In an emergency call 999
For general enquiries call 01158388100
Monday - Friday -

Do you have historic retained/on-call firefighter service? You could be in scope for the Matthews Second Option Pensions Exercise. More details here. 

NFRS 2024 58 - False alarms

You asked for

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please can you disclose the following information:

  1. In the last 5 years, [Between April 6- April 5 2019-2024]. How many incidents didthe fire service attend due to faulty/false fire alarms? (Broken down by years,2019/2020, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24).
    1. During this five-year period, how much money was spent on fire enginesbeing called out to false calls?

Our Response:

Note: These 'Financial years' start from the 6 April

2019/20 - Time spent (mins)
00-15 15-30 30-45 45-60 60+ Total
Total False Alarms 1,326 2,151 363 83 50 3,973
Due to detection equipment 1,089 1,553 215 55 25 2,937
Faulty detection equipment 164 359 58 18 8 607
2019/20 - Appliance Attending
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Total False Alarms 3 2,623 883 367 96 1 0 0
Due to detection equipment 0 1,863 680 307 86 1 0 0
Faulty detection equipment 0 426 125 44 11 1 0 0
2020/21 - Time spent (mins)
00-15 15-30 30-45 45-60 60+ Total
Total False Alarms 1,337 2,048 327 85 43 3,840
Due to detection equipment 1,063 1,441 214 52 23 2,793
Faulty detection equipment 116 315 68 11 7 517
2020/21 - Appliance Attending
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Total False Alarms 5 2,569 821 290 133 17 4 1
Due to detection equipment 0 1,790 632 244 112 10 4 1
Faulty detection equipment 0 368 97 37 15 0 0 0
2021/22 - Time spent (mins)
00-15 15-30 30-45 45-60 60+ Total
Total False Alarms 1,448 2,217 346 73 42 4,126
Due to detection equipment 1,214 1,589 224 43 18 3,088
Faulty detection equipment 136 282 53 9 5 485
2021/22 - Appliance Attending
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Total False Alarms 5 2,758 803 385 144 15 15 1
Due to detection equipment 0 2,000 596 342 121 14 14 1
Faulty detection equipment 0 354 77 30 17 2 5 0
2022/23 - Time spent (mins)
00-15 15-30 30-45 45-60 60+ Total
Total False Alarms 1,632 2,453 403 91 60 4,639
Due to detection equipment 1,384 1,753 259 50 28 3,474
Faulty detection equipment 168 309 58 11 7 553
2022/23 - Appliance Attending
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Total False Alarms 2 3,539 453 514 80 12 34 4 1
Due to detection equipment 0 2,626 267 468 66 12 31 3 1
Faulty detection equipment 0 459 37 47 2 4 4 0 0
2023/24 - Time spent (mins)
00-15 15-30 30-45 45-60 60+ Total
Total False Alarms 1,826 2,609 406 97 45 4,983
Due to detection equipment 1,553 1,952 271 66 24 3,866
Faulty detection equipment 184 403 74 21 10 692
2023/24 - Appliance Attending
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Total False Alarms 2 3,786 507 444 79 21 132 12
Due to detection equipment 0 2,984 284 392 49 18 127 12
Faulty detection equipment 0 547 54 57 4 4 23 3