Aucklanders and false alarms
December 30th, 2009 at 11:21 am by David FarrarThe Herald reports:
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.
The false alarm rate in Auckland appears to be two to three times higher than the rest of NZ. Any theories on why?
No tag for this post.
December 30th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Prob because JAFAs are wusses and they call the fire brigade for harmless things that the rest of the country would HTFU about and/or just put it out themselves
Vote:December 30th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Auckland is NZ’s Australia. NZer’s moving there raise the IQ of both places.
Vote:December 30th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
It’s because of all the morons in office buildings burning their toast etc. The number of callouts from office kitchen smoke alarms is astronomical. These callouts are automated, and due to the dumbing down of everybody through overburdening OSH regulations, nobody is allowed to investigate what could be a relatively minor fire and therefore cancel the automated fire callout.
A classic case of over regulation fucking up what should be a very simplistic procedure. Either the fucking building is on fire or it’s not!
Vote:December 30th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Interestingly enough, based on those numbers of the 53,139 plus real fire calls, only 6% were in Auckland (despite having 1/3 of the population)
(41% of 20,373 = 8,353 false calls in Auckland. At at 74% false alarm rates, the total calls are 11,288 which gives us 2,935 true calls)
Man, the rest of the county needs to beef up it’s fire safety standards.:-)
Vote:December 30th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Causes of false alarms? . The same as fires. Men Women and Children. And one extra for Auckland. Immigrants
Vote:December 30th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
South aucklanders?
Vote:December 30th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Perhaps its because Auckland has the largest population in the country and also has one of the most youthful? What do young people do when they’re bored? They make prank calls…
It happens across the globe and is not prone to poor old Auckland.
Get over it!
Vote:December 30th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
As one of those responsible – I was in the office over the Christmas break, smelt smoke, had a look around and nothing obvious, so tried to call the landline for the local fire station to discuss rather than call 111 – no answer, so ended up having to call 111 just in case – explained the situation but the fire dept came anyway – their comment – better safe than sorry.
Just ambulance and police to go to complete the trifecta
Vote:December 30th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Just to correct eszett’s maths
20373 * 41% = 12452 calls. If these represent 71% of total calls from Akl, then total calls = 16828, which = 22% of total national calls – still seems very low, although the reference was to central auckland, so not sure what area that covers?
Vote:December 30th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
‘put it away’ – AFAIK if someone extinguishes a fire before the firefighters arrive it is recorded as a genuine alarm – they will check to make sure it is properly extinguished. I am surprised the Fire Service did not segregate out ‘false alarms with genuine intent’ as these are not of concern.
Agree with comments about smoke alarms. Brigade connected smoke alarms are bad news in kitchens, some bathrooms and ‘bells and smells’ churches. There must be a better way – eg someone markets a device that disconnects power to stoves and kitchen power outlets when smoke is detected.
Vote:December 30th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
It would be equally interesting to know how many genuine domestic fires took hold in dwellings where smoke detectors were fitted, but their battery had been removed for use in a child’s toy.
Vote:December 30th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Aucklanders are just complying with Health and Safety Laws made by fuckwits in Wellington.
Vote:If a smoke alarm goes off do not investigate, ring 111 and move to the designated assembly area.
However, do not disturb me, I will be busy working
December 30th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
JAFA: Just Another False Alarm.
Vote:December 30th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
It would be interesting to see the breakdown of the $25M “costs”.
It doesn’t seem “equipment” and “wages” are actually variable, i.e. additional, expense. Petrol would be of course be a cost and there might be other incidentals, but $25M…???
Most firemen I know aren’t actually all that busy most days. Is this really a big problem or more of an annoyance to the boys??
Vote:December 30th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
and then there is a Government dealing with paid firemen, who schedule stations and therefore jobs by the number of calls for that station or area, and being a paid fireman, false alarms then take on a completely new hue!
Vote:December 31st, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Sorry Kevin, but you need a new calculator.
20373 * 41% = 8,353 (Just look your calc.: If 50% of 20373 is 10,187, how then can 41% be more than that?)
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