Keeping Communities Safe: London Fire Brigade introduces new policy aimed at reducing false alarms

The London Fire Brigade has changed its approach to responding to automatic fire alarms. Starting today (October 29), crews will stop servicing automatic fire alarms in most non-residential buildings, such as office buildings or industrial complexes, during the day – unless a call comes in from a person reporting a fire.

The change will allow firefighters to spend more time and resources on other priorities, such as community fire prevention efforts and enhanced operational training. The team will continue to respond at all times to all automatic fire alarms in residential buildings and schools, kindergartens, hospitals, nursing homes, cultural heritage sites and other vacated premises*.

The new rules will only apply between 7:00 am and 8:30 pm. Outside of these hours, the crew will service all automatic fire alarms in any building.

The changes are being introduced in London following a public consultation held last year involving members of the public, businesses, partners, firefighters and other members of the brigade.

Since announcing its policy change in May, the Brigade has been contacting London’s stakeholders, businesses, community groups and residents to ensure they understand what the changes mean for them, what they need to do to prepare and how to ensure they can keep their buildings and the people they are responsible for safe.

This included an online webinar held in August which was attended by more than 100 people from 60 groups including transport organisations, councils and retail. Participants were given the opportunity to learn how the policy change would impact their organization and ask any questions. In addition, the team worked closely with community forum participants, as well as stakeholders and businesses.

Assistant Commissioner for Prevention and Protection Craig Carter said: “Following a period of extensive engagement with our communities and stakeholders, we are now ready to implement this new policy.

“We are here to keep London’s communities safe and we want to do this as effectively as possible. We will always be present in the event of an emergency and will continue to monitor for alarms in any premises where people sleep, such as homes, hotels and prisons.

“As outlined in our Community Risk Management Plan, reducing our presence on false alarms will give firefighters more time to focus on protective and preventative activities such as visiting our most vulnerable residents and communities, fire safety inspections, and operational training.”

Why are we implementing this policy?

False alarms make up 40 percent of the calls the brigade receives. Between April 2023 and March 2024, the team responded to approximately 52,000 false automatic fire alarm alarms. Less than 1 percent of automatic smoke alarms indicate real fires, and the remaining 99 percent are false alarms, putting an unnecessary strain on crew resources. Almost all other fire and rescue services in the UK have introduced policies aimed at reducing the number of false alarms, and the National Fire Chiefs’ Council (NFCC) and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services support efforts to reduce the number of false alarms.

Instead, the time spent attending these false alarms will be used to improve the availability of time for operational firefighter training, as well as freeing up more time to provide fire prevention and fire safety to local communities.

Why do false positives occur?

There are several reasons. Common causes include poor alarm design or maintenance, dust inside the detectors, or fumes. It is vital that automatic alarm systems are properly operated and maintained to minimize false alarms, and to ensure that business staff are suitably trained to understand their responsibilities under fire safety legislation. Repeated false alarms can often be eliminated quickly and easily. The team urges businesses experiencing repeated false alarms to investigate each incident to find the cause, including contacting the alarm system company.