A campaign is being launched to reduce thousands of needless false fire alarms.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) responded to a total of 28,713 such incidents over the course of 2019 – resulting in around 54,000 unnecessary blue light journeys.
The Lennox Herald reported last month how false alarms accounted for the majority of call outs in West Dunbartonshire at 31 per cent.
Coronavirus latest: Strict rules introduced at West Dunbartonshire care homes
The systems are designed to provide an early warning of fire so that members of the public in non-domestic properties have ample time to exit a building.
However, the majority of signals from these systems are generated by other causes such as a fault in the system or cooking, steam, dust, smoking or vaping. This can lead to crews being turned out unnecessarily.
The new Be Aware campaign is intended to reach everyone who uses, visits or works in any of these premises.
Dumbarton missing man: Police issue CCTV image
Assistant Chief Officer Ross Haggart said: “We as a service encourage the use of automatic fire detection as it helps save lives and protect buildings.
“However, false alarms, such as those that are caused by system faults or as a consequence of unintended actions, are an unnecessary drain on our resources and present undue risk for our firefighters and the public from appliances responding to these calls under blue light conditions.”
For more local news, click here
