False alarms - frustration for firefighters, $25m bill for taxpayers

False fire call-outs cost Kiwi taxpayers up to $25 million. Photo / The Aucklander

More than a quarter of all fire call-outs in the past financial year were false alarms, at a cost to taxpayers of up to $25 million.

Figures released to the Herald under the Official Information Act show of the 73,512 jobs the Fire Service attended in the year to June, firefighters turned back from 20,373.

The majority of false alarms - 41 per cent - came from the Auckland region, where up to 74 per cent of all calls to central city stations turned out to be false alarms.

Wellington had the second-largest number of false alarms (15 per cent) followed by Canterbury (12 per cent).

A fire service call-out costs an average $1250, though a percentage of that amount is often reclaimed in fines.

A false alarm is defined as "any call attended by the fire brigade, where there was no genuine fire or other emergency requiring intervention to prevent injury, death or property loss".

The figures include bomb scares, excess smoke from a fire and alarm activations.

Firefighters have had an extra problem to contend with this Christmas, with a brand of tiny, burning lanterns being mistaken for distress flares.

The candle-powered lanterns were responsible for more than half a dozen emergency call-outs on Boxing Day, northern police communications said, and prompted numerous emergency calls nationwide. The lanterns are also believed to have prompted reports of strange lights in the sky across the North Island.

In an attempt to cut the number of false alarms, the Fire Service will distribute pamphlets detailing their cost and effect.

If the Fire Service attends more than two avoidable alarms at a building where smoke detectors are connected to a fire alarm system, it will bill the owner $1250 to cover costs such as equipment, petrol and wages.

Auckland senior fire investigator Russell Dickson said every call to the Fire Service was treated as genuine until proven otherwise.

The fines were not about making money, but about putting pressure on property-owners to reduce false alarms which would reduce costs and its carbon footprint and save resources for real fires.

Some fines were waived once the Fire Service was satisfied the owner had taken steps to fix the problem.

One call-out in the central city could pull in firefighters from at least four stations which meant those areas were not covered if there was a genuine fire.

People in the city were becoming complacent as fire engines were so often in the area, Mr Dickson said.

However, he said the Fire Service did not want to discourage people from using smoke alarms. He said some tenants afraid of being fined for false alarms had covered their alarms to stop them from going off.

"If you're doing that, you might as well not have one at all," he said.