Malicious activation of a fire alarm in school – wider information

The Law

The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 makes it an offence to falsely give alarm of fire to any person who works for a fire and rescue authority. If you commit this offence you can face on summary conviction a fine of up to £2,500, imprisonment of up to 51 weeks or both. Alternatively, you could be issued with a fixed penalty notice of £90 under CJPA 2001.

Crying wolf syndrome

"False alarms or unwanted signals have been a problem for some time", explains Graham Simons, technical manager at the Fire Industry Association (FIA)

"From a building occupier's perspective, false alarms are also costly; every time there's an evacuation, there's lost production". Typically, from moving staff out to getting everyone back in might take about 30 minutes.

But perhaps the key issue for safety practitioners is the more serious danger that too many false alarms can create "cry wolf" syndrome.

"Eventually, there may be a real fire and people will decide to finish an email or continue a call, thinking 'oh, we always get these; there's nothing to worry about'," says Simons.

The safety risk, the unnecessary costs and the changes in fire service policies - including potential charging - should be enough to convince most organisations that it's in their interests to minimise the chance of false alarms.

In the news

A man who deliberately smashed a fire alarm in student halls has been convicted of criminal damage.

Daniel Cottage, 27, was staying with a friend at the University of Sussex campus in Falmer, Brighton, when he smashed a call point glass cover at 1.30am on July 16 2017.

Cottage, of High Street, Kettering, appeared at Brighton Magistrates' Court on October 14 charged with criminal damage.

He was sentenced to a 12-month conditional, ordered to pay a £50 and £250 compensation to meet the cost of the call-out of the appliance on the night. Borough Commander Keith Ring said: "Every time an appliance is called out unnecessarily it means our crews are unavailable to attend a potentially life-threatening incident. It is not only about the money but the danger that this type of action can place the public in. We hope that this acts as a stern warning to anyone else thinking of committing a similar offence, as we will not hesitate to take legal action against the culprit".