Fire crews in Sussex have been called to more than 36,000 false and faulty fire alarms in the past five years. Figures from East and West Sussex Fire and Rescue Services found that on average there are around 20 incidents a day involving a false alarm. Fire services say these cause “significant disruption” to their work and mean firefighters cannot attend emergencies where lives are at risk.
Freedom of Information requests from Personal Injury Claims UK found that the two fire services have visited 36,906 false fire alarms since April 2019. The figures are between 6,000 and 8,000 a year over the past five years – around 20 incidents a day. False fire alarms account for the largest number of fire service callouts nationally at around 38 per cent.
East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said: "False alarms cause significant disruption to our training, fire safety and community safety work and, crucially, while firefighters are investigating the cause of the alarm, they cannot attend emergencies where lives are at risk." It said it no longer attends fire alarms operating in low-risk commercial premises unless it receives telephone confirmation that there is a fire..
