Greater scrutiny cuts fire false alarms

Shropshire firefighters attended more than 1,800 false alarms in 2023-2024

A fire service has seen a "significant reduction" in the number of false alarms after introducing systems to weed them out last year.

Previously, 43.3% of calls to Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service turned out to be false alarms, slightly higher than the national average of 42.3%.

The issue was highlighted by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services last year.

The fire service began its "call challenging" policy in June 2024.

A report due to go before the fire service's annual meeting on Wednesday notes that in the financial year ending in April 2024, the service attended 1,855 false alarms, with 1,100 generated by automatic alarms.

The report reads: "Following a trial of a call challenging policy early indications are that there is a significant reduction of mobilisation and attendance at false alarm incidents," without specifying the scale of the reduction.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.