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You are here: Home > News > Union calls for automatic fire alarm plans to be scrapped

Union calls for automatic fire alarm plans to be scrapped


By Kimberley Slack - 05/01/2012

A firefighters' union has called for plans by one UK brigade to stop responding immediately to all automatic fire alarms to be dropped.

Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service has proposed that it stops sending out a fire engine every time a business' automatic fire alarm goes off during daytime hours. An appliance would only be sent out if a member of the public also made an emergency call.

The changes would only affect "low-risk premises", not domestic properties or buildings regarded as being higher-risk, according to the fire service.

A report by the Rutland and Stamford Mercury, said the findings of a three-month consultation period, which ended yesterday, are due to be announced next month.

The fire service said it would never put forward a plan which would put people at risk, but the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has called for the idea to be scrapped.

South West regional official Tam McFarlan said: "It's something we are totally opposed to. It flies in the face of every piece of advice and every standard operating procedure that the fire service has had in the last 20 or 30 years."

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