Reduction in attendance to AFA’s is already producing results
Reducing attendance to an increasing amount of unwanted Automatic Fire Alarms (AFA’s) is at the heart of a new policy which has been launched by Warwickshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service.
The first phase came into effect on 27 September 2010 and has almost halved the amount false automatic fire alarm calls attended. The success of these results has now enabled the Service to move on to the second phase of the policy which will take effect from Monday 1 November 2010.
The second phase of the policy will be to change the way the Service responds to unwanted automatic fire alarms in commercial and business premises by sending only a single fire appliance in the evening and not attending during the daytime, unless a real fire is confirmed from the premises owner or via a 999 call.
In addition to reducing it’s attendance to AFA’s, the Service is also working with businesses in Warwickshire who currently have an automatic fire alarm to ensure they have the right management procedures in place for the safe investigation of automatic fire alarm signals.
Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Jim Onions said: “Central to our Improvement Plan is the reallocation of resources from areas that are not contributing sufficiently to improving safety, enabling us to prioritise in areas that ensure we have the right resources in the right place at the right time for life risk incidents.
“Since the launch of the new Automatic Fire Alarm policy we have reduced our attendance to false alarms by 48%. This dramatic reduction in our attendance to false alarms means that we can now use that time more effectively for improved training and community safety work. This is of real benefit to the service and the communities it serves.”
Portfolio Holder for Community Protection, Richard Hobbs said: “The new AFA policy is already making a difference to the way in which we deploy our resources by increasing our availability to attend life risk incidents over false alarms. I think this is excellent news for the service and I hope that by working with our communities this success will continue."
If businesses would like further information on the new policy log onto http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fireandrescue.