NEWS GMFRS ends daytime automatic alarm response


SINCE 1 April, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) has stopped sending firefighters to automatic alarms at non residential buildings between 8am and 5pm. Manchester Evening News


reported that GMFRS is ‘facing making cuts of £10m’ this year, meaning that firefighters will ‘no longer respond’ to automatic alarms at non residential buildings unless the caller or alarm receiving centre (ARC) can ‘confirm that a fire is known to have broken out, or unless the building is the subject of an exemption’ such as a hospital. This will apply only between 8am and 5pm, to offices, factories and businesses. Callers will also be asked to check


the alarm’s ‘origin’ and recontact North West Fire Control, which dispatches appliances, if a fire is discovered. In turn, ARCs will be asked to contact the premises where the alarm is sounding to check, and then dial 999 if a fire is discovered. One appliance will initially attend when a caller is unable to check the alarm’s source, and all residential premises will continue to have an appliance attend an automatic alarm 24 hours a day. High rises will ‘not be affected’ and


will ‘continue to get a full response’, while if an ARC refuses to call a premises back, they will be informed that ‘no attendance will be made by the service until a fire is confirmed at the premises’. Over the next three years, GMFRS needs to save £12.8m, but the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) responded that changes were made ‘without consultation’, forcing bosses to agree to two weeks of consultation. Around 100 support jobs will be cut and six stations closed, with three new stations opened and the number of appliances reduced to 47 from 56, according to Manchester Evening News, which added the ‘most controversial of all’ information that the number of firefighters per appliance ‘would reduce from five to four’. GMFRS’ report commented


that ‘over 98 per cent of these calls are false alarms caused by sources such as burned toast, steam from appliance or aerosols and smoking within prohibited areas’, and that while it has a ‘legal duty’ to extinguish


fires and protect life and property, there is ‘no statutory duty to provide a response’ to automatic alarms. It continued: ‘Responding to


false alarms does not provide an efficient use of resources for people in Greater Manchester in terms of time, fuel, personnel costs, and the environmental impact. Furthermore GMFRS believes that a continued response to automatic fire alarms can cause complacency in relation to the management of fire safety in some premises and is therefore inconsistent with its duty to promote and encourage good fire safety management.’ Gary Keary, FBU brigade secretary,


commented: ‘The [FBU] are extremely concerned at a change in the way GMFRS now deal with automatic fire alarms. As of the 1 April, the service will no longer send a fire engine to certain premises when the fire alarm goes off between 8am and 5pm, additionally the number of fire engines being sent to high risk premises such as hospitals was reduced to just one; however, it is understood that following the FBU raising urgent concerns, the response to these high risk buildings was reverted back to the original standard. This policy change was initiated with no meaningful consultation with the FBU, which left the Union with no option but to register a dispute with Greater Manchester Combined Authority. ‘The service have now offered the


FBU a short period of consultation, but have stated that the policy changes


will remain in place throughout this period. The FBU find it unacceptable that the service have decided to take such a broad brush approach to dealing with fire alarms and have suggested a much better and safer solution would be to work with landlords to reduce the number of unnecessary fire alarms. ‘Many small fires have been


stopped from taking hold in buildings and undoubtedly lives have been saved by the fire service responding to fire alarms. It seems remarkable following the tragedy at Grenfell Tower and as we approach the 40 anniversary of the Woolworths fire here in Manchester that the service are looking to reduce the level of fire cover it provides to our communities and businesses.’


A GMFRS spokesman responded: ‘[GMFRS] attends more than 9,000 calls to fire alarms every year, over 40 per cent of all calls we receive. Around 180 of these calls are actual fires and around 18 of these fires actually require the use of any fire and rescue service equipment. The safety of the public and our firefighters is always our highest priority and this change will mean that fire engines are available to attend real emergencies as well as allowing crews to take part in training, risk information visits and community safety work. This change allows us to continue providing an efficient service for taxpayers whilst protecting firefighters and the public and maintaining response times.’


www.frmjournal.com JUNE 2019 11


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