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05
Oct 2023
North Yorkshire fire service to charge businesses for false alarm calls
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service will charge businesses so it can “recoup the costs” of sending fire engines out to false alarms.
Between April 2021 and March 2022, the service attended 7,594 incidents across the county but nearly half of those turned out to be false alarms.
The service pledged to tackle the problem in its Risk and Resource Model 2022-2025 as it said the incidents take crews away from potentially life threatening situations.
The Conservative North Yorkshire Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner, Zoe Metcalfe, held an online public meeting around business fire safety and protection when the issue of false alarms came up.
Pete Gregory, head of protection and risk at the service, said the charge might help to stop repeat offenders. He said:
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A spokesman for the Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner said the service is “still calculating exactly what the cost will be” but it hopes to publish the figure before the end of this month.
Other fire services that have set a charge include London Fire Brigade which charges £290 after 10 false alarm call-outs.
In North Yorkshire, a charge might be made after a fourth call out within a 12-month period.
The spokesman added:
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