Fire crews now won't automatically respond to some alarm activations in Hartlepool - this is why

Cleveland Fire Brigade chiefs said they are changing the way they respond to the automatic alarms to ensure resources are available to tackle real incidents.

It will mean Cleveland Fire Brigade will not attend accidental fire alarms at low and medium risk premises at any point during the day or night, unless a backup call is received from the premises via the 999 system, confirming there is a fire.

However if the premises are unoccupied and nobody is there to make a call and confirm the situation, a single fire engine will attend to investigate the cause.

Low-to-medium risk premises include schools, industrial, business and commercial premises, leisure complexes and other public buildings.

High-risk, special-risk and residential properties will receive a fire engine to investigate the cause of the alarm, while some businesses may be exempt from the changes if there are exceptional circumstances.

The pilot comes following a previous change to response implemented in May 2019, which saw a reduction to attendance at 139 automatic fire alarm calls in 2019-20, which allowed resources to be directed to other areas.

The fire brigade previously had a policy in place which meant between 7am and 6pm Monday to Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sundays they would not attend automatic alarms to low and medium risk premises unless a 999 call was made.

Cleveland Fire Authority considered and agreed the pilot scheme extending the strategy, having reviewed the impact assessment and consulted with businesses and the wider local community.

It will also help the brigade to further reduce the number of false alarms that crews attend.

Joe Flounders, head of fire engineering, said: "This pilot sees the brigade expanding its already successful unwanted fire signal strategy from being time bound to 24 hours, ensuring the most effective and efficient use of our resources.

“Since the introduction of the strategy back in 2017 we have seen a 29% reduction in calls where there were no fires.

"This means resources are available to respond to real incidents, deliver our prevention and protection activities and we can undertake training and development.

"It’s not all about the benefits to the brigade, commerce also benefits, there is less disruption to their business activities and they know that if they do need us we’ll be there.”

The pilot scheme commenced at the start of this month and will last for 12 months, and means the time frames of the unwanted fire signals strategy will be expanded to cover a 24 hour period 7 days a week.

The brigade will also not attend automatic fire alarms from alarm receiving centres at any point during the day or night unless they are backed up with a 999 call from the premises.

Many other fire and rescue services across the country have taken similar measures, some have also introduced charges for attending false alarms.

Any request for an exemption due to significant risk must be made by email to [email protected].

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