DORSET and Wiltshire’s firefighters attended more false alarm incidents than actual fires last year, new figures show.

Home Office data shows Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service responded to 13,260 call-outs in the year to September. 

Of those, 48 per cent were a result of false alarms, while just 22 per cent were for actual fires.

The false alarms to the service last year included 161 deemed ‘malicious’ – such as fake or hoax calls.

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

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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 Dorset and Wiltshire, 4,136 callouts were made for this reason, accounting for nearly a third of all incidents attended by the area’s firefighters last year.

A further 1,865 false-alarm calls were made in good faith – where the public believed that 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.

Assistant chief fire officer Andy Cole said:

“The Service never knowingly attends a false alarm, we attend emergencies that have been reported to us via a 999 call. Where it later becomes clear that the incident was a false alarm, then we will always look to see whether there are ways of preventing similar call-outs in future. 

“This can include the work done by our protection teams in giving advice to businesses on how to reduce the risk of unwanted fire signals, or the education work undertaken by our prevention teams.

“However, if someone believes there is a fire or another issue requiring our immediate assistance, they should always call 999 – we would rather attend a false alarm than not attend a genuine emergency.”