North Yorkshire Fire Service considers charge for false alarms

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service says almost half its callouts between April 2021 and March 2022 were unnecessary

Businesses could be expected to pay North Yorkshire Fire Service for its crews attending repeated false alarms in a bid to "recoup the costs".

Between April 2021 and March 2022, the service attended 7,594 incidents - but almost half were false alarms.

The fire service said such calls took crews away from attending potentially life-threatening situations.

A charge could be made after a fourth unnecessary callout to premises within a 12-month period, it said.

The issue of false alarms was discussed during an online public meeting about fire safety held by North Yorkshire Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner Zoe Metcalfe, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

'Problematic premises'

Pete Gregory, head of protection and risk at North Yorkshire Fire Service, said a charge might help to stop repeat offenders.

"If it's a consistent problem, there is an option to charge and recoup costs of going out unnecessarily to some of these sites," he said.

"We are aware of these problematic premises. It's not necessarily last resort, but it's an option to use when the message is not getting through."

A spokesman for the Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner said the service was "still calculating exactly what the cost will be", but it hoped to publish the figure soon.

Other fire services that have set a charge include London Fire Brigade, which charges £290 after 10 false alarm callouts.

The spokesman added: "A charge will only be considered once engagement from our business fire safety teams with a premises has not resulted in a reduction of incidents attended."