A BRADFORD district manager has called malicious false alarms "extremely costly and time-wasting" after West Yorkshire’s firefighters attended more false alarms than fires last year.

Home Office data shows West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service responded to 23,963 call-outs in the year to September 2021.

Of those, 44 per cent were a result of false alarms, while just 37 per cent were for actual fires.

The false alarms to the service last year included 328 deemed ‘malicious’ – such as fake or hoax calls.

Unnecessary callouts can be costly and time-consuming for emergency services.

Benjy Bush, West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service Bradford district manager said “While we encourage anyone suspecting a fire to call 999, malicious false alarms are extremely costly and time-wasting on our service and they take vital fire appliances, firefighters and equipment away from other emergencies where they might be needed.

“We work hard to provide an excellent service and this means having highly skilled staff and all the right resources in the right place at the right time to help keep the communities of West Yorkshire safe – so false alarms can have a tremendous impact on that.

“The overwhelming majority of false alarms are well intentioned and not malicious, and we encourage responsible reporting if somebody thinks an emergency is occurring.”

While malicious callers accounted for 5,473 calls to fire services across England last year, the largest proportion of false alarms occurred due to faulty equipment, such as broken fire alarms and smoke detectors.

In West Yorkshire, 7,162 callouts were made for this reason, accounting for nearly a third of all incidents attended by the area’s firefighters last year.

A further 2,595 false-alarm calls were made in good faith – where the public believed a fire may have genuinely been taking place.

The National Fire Chiefs Council said a false alarm is attended to almost every 90 seconds in the UK and can cost up to £450, taking resources away from genuine emergencies and increasing the service's carbon footprint.

Paul McCourt, who leads on tackling unwanted fire alarms at the NFCC, said owners of commercial properties, which are to blame for many false alarm callouts, have a "wider social responsibility" to deal with them.

He said: "By ensuring correct and compliant alarm design and maintenance they can help reduce the number of unwanted fire signals."

Some local services charge if they are repeatedly called out for false alarms — even if they are the result of equipment failure — with bills for the worst offenders running into hundreds of pounds.