‘High-risk’ false fire alarm responses in Nottinghamshire prisons drop by 50 per cent following trial

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) carried out a six-month test of a new system to reduce ‘unnecessary attendances’ of officers, fire engines and equipment in prisons.

The trial was run to ‘ensure the effective and efficient use of resources’ of the service, documents say.

A report, to be discussed next week at a Fire Authority Community Safety Committee meeting, reads: “Due to building safety features and strict regulations, the presence of qualified and trained prison staff with access to extinguishing media, and 24 hour surveillance, it was determined that changes to pre-determined attendances (PDAs) could be trialled safely.”

The fire service’s standard response to all prison incidents is to dispatch three appliances and an officer.

During the trial, the service analysed each incident type to evaluate the best course of action rather than implementing the standard response.

With a new response strategy, the total number of fire incident responses reduced by 50 per cent.

The trial was implemented after the service saw a “significant increase” in officer attendances over between August 2023 to August 2024 compared to previous months, the document reads.

From August 2023 to August 2024, the service responded to 132 incidents at prisons across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

Following the trial, this dropped to just 23 responses since August last year.

The report adds: “Since 1 August 2024, PDAs have been determined on incident type rather than a standard response. These changes brought the attendance at prison incidents in line with other high-risk buildings such as hospitals.”

A full evaluation of the trial will be analysed at the end of February and a further update will be released in 2025.

The trial will be discussed at Nottinghamshire and City of Nottingham Fire and Rescue Authority meeting on Friday, January 10.