FAQs

No decision has been taken on these proposals. The feedback from this consultation will help to inform the decision making for changes to Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service’s automatic fire alarm attendance policy. The service will review the feedback and prepare a report for the cabinet member for Public Health, Inequalities & Community Safety. This report will be considered at a public meeting in the first quarter of 2024/25 at which a decision will be made about any changes to the fire alarm policy.

Fire alarm systems provide an early warning of fire and are one of the most effective ways to keep businesses, staff, and customers safe in the event of a fire.

On most occasions when these alarms activate, there is no fire. They are false alarms, often caused by cooking fumes, dust, or a lack of maintenance.

These unwanted fire alarm activations mean fire and rescue crews are called out unnecessarily.

In Oxfordshire, around 99 per cent of the fire alarm activations that firefighters attend are false alarms.

Oxfordshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service is proposing no longer attending automatic fire alarm activation in medium risk and low risk buildings (such as most general commercial buildings) either during the daytime (9am to 6pm) or on a 24-hour basis, unless they receive confirmation of a fire or because there are signs of fire.

If the proposals go ahead:

Duty holders with responsibility for workplace premises should safely investigate a fire alarm before calling 999. Oxfordshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service’ control room operators will ask for confirmation of an actual fire, or signs of fire, before sending the nearest fire engine.

• Reduced avoidable disruption to businesses that have automatic fire alarms installed. Any organisation that experiences an automatic fire alarm activation due to a false alarm suffers from disruption to its business. This could be avoided.
• Increased capacity for valuable work such as preventing fires and community safety activities (it is estimated that fire and rescue officers could deliver 160 additional ‘safe and well’ home safety check visits if the number of false alarms attended is reduced by 30 per cent). It would also mean more time for crews to take part in critical training and more fire engines available for genuine emergencies.
• Reduced disruption to businesses that release some of their employees as part-time firefighters to attend incidents.
• A saving of approximately £20,000 per annum if the number of false alarms attended is reduced by 30 per cent.
• Fewer overall blue light journeys, resulting in reduced road risk to firefighters and the public, and less impact on the environment.

Yes. We are proposing that high risk premises will continue to get an emergency response. These includes care homes and hospitals as well as buildings considered to be critical for local communities. We are also not proposing any changes to how we respond to incidents in dwellings or to confirmed fires.

Maintaining facilities and equipment is important for reducing the risk of fires. Indeed, failure to do this could lead to prosecution.

Oxfordshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service supports the installation of automatic fire alarm systems, but these systems must be fully managed and maintained to reduce false alarms.

Duty holders must work with their fire risk assessor and update their fire risk assessment with any changes.

 Other key steps include:

• Reviewing the business’ fire safety risk assessment and keeping a log of all false alarms to identify any trends that should be raised with alarm engineers.
• Creating an action plan to reduce the chance of any false alarm occurring.
• Checking detector types and their locations – would moving detectors or changing the type used reduce activations? Seek advice from an alarm engineer.
• Upgrading automatic fire detection systems that are obsolete with more modern technology. For example, ‘multi-sensing’ detectors.
• Fitting manual call points with protective plastic covers in problem / vulnerable or high traffic areas.
• Ascertaining whether any false alarms are a result of activating the wrong call points such as green emergency door release points.
• Considering whether a link to an alarm receiving centre is necessary or if it is appropriate to suspend the automatic dialling function whilst buildings are occupied or at certain times of the day.
• Seeking further guidance and advice from an alarm system provider or servicing agent as well as the local legislative fire safety officer.