Firefighters called out to fire alarms at flats 49 times

The service is now working with the owner of the Keighley building to “educate” tenants to prevent future call-outs, with one councillor pointing out that the repeated false alarms were costing the fire service and the taxpayer.

Details of the repeated call-outs were revealed at the latest meeting of West Yorkshire Fire Authority.

The meeting, made up of councillors from across West Yorkshire, heard an update on incidents and call outs since April.

Members heard that although there had been a six per cent drop in false alarm call-outs across West Yorkshire in that time, there was an eight per cent rise in Bradford.

By comparison, there had been a six per cent drop in Leeds and a 21 per cent drop in Wakefield.

Scott Donegan, Area Manager with responsibility for prevention and response at West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, said the rise in false alarms in Bradford was almost entirely down to issues at one building – a high-rise block of flats in Keighley.

The service has since confirmed that the building in question was Bentley Court – a 95-bed apartment building on Parkwood Rise.

The building was previously known as Delph House until it was refurbished and re-named by new owners in 2017.

Current policy from West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service calls for at least two fire engines and a watch manager to be sent out to each automated fire alarm at a high-rise building.

Mr Donegan told members: “The rise in call outs in Bradford is down to one property in the district – a high rise block of flats in Keighley.

“We’ve been called out to 49 AFAs (automated fire alarms) since April.”

A file picture of West Yorkshire fire engines

He told members the service was dealing with the building’s owners, adding: “A couple of the tenants obviously need support.”

Bradford Councillor Fozia Shaheen (Lab, Toller) asked if there had been “robust work” with the building’s owners to target the problem, adding: “Each time you go out, it is costing us as an authority.”

Mr Donegan confirmed the service worked with building owners to try to bring the number of false alarms down.

The report to members revealed that across West Yorkshire the most common reason for false alarms at residential properties was cooking or burnt toast.

A spokesperson for Premier Estates, which runs Bentley Court, told the Telegraph & Argus: “We are working closely with West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service, to provide resident guidance, and to ensure that fire safety systems in the building remain operational at all times.

“Resident safety is our absolute priority, as demonstrated by our approach to both routine and reactive maintenance at Bentley Court, and we are confident that the work we are doing, including ongoing education and engagement, will reduce the number of call outs necessary.”

Earlier in the meeting, members had been given an update on recent changes to policy regarding to how the service responds to automated fire alarms.

Since March, the service has not responded to automated fire alarms at commercial properties unless there is a confirmed sign of fire.

Exceptions to this include businesses where people sleep, such as care homes or hotels, schools, high risk chemical sites and Heritage buildings.

In the six months since the changes have been introduced, there has been a 50 per cent drop in the amount of call outs by fire crews to commercial properties.

The changes were brought in due to the huge number of false alarms firefighters were being called to.

Between March and August 2023 West Yorkshire Fire Service had attended 1,431 call outs to businesses due to an automated fire alarm – amounting to 928 hours of firefighter time.

Of those, 1,419 ended up being false alarms.

Between March and August this year – after the new policy started, they attended just 711 – five of which turned out to be fires.

This meant that the amount of time spent responding to commercial automated fire alarms was now down to 462 hours.

The service will soon change how it responds to automated fire alarms at domestic properties – current policy is to send two fire engines if an alarm goes off at a home between 7pm and 8am, and one if the alarm is in the daytime.

Plans are underway to rationalise this, so only one engine is dispatched to a domestic fire alarm, whatever time of the day.

High rise buildings would be exempt from this change.

A report to members said: “This change will also impact positively on fire cover across West Yorkshire. It would also allow the time saved to be invested into operational training, fire prevention, protection, and community engagement.”