Fire and Rescue Service Public Consultation Affecting Schools

Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service is consulting on proposals which aim to reduce our attendance at false fire alarms that are generated by automatic fire alarms so that firefighters can spend more time keeping communities in Oxfordshire safe.

The consultation is now open and closes on the 13 May 2024. We attend approximately 1450 automatic fire alarm incidents every year, 99% of which turn out to be false alarms. These false alarms cost the council money and divert our fire and rescue resources away from more valuable work such preventing fires, community safety activities for the most vulnerable, and taking part in critical training. It also impacts our part-time firefighters and their employers when they are released from their normal employment to attend incidents. We are proposing to reduce our attendance at false fire alarms by stopping attending automatic fire alarms in some types of buildings until we have spoken to someone using a call challenge process. 

Schools are a type of premises that is specifically mentioned within the consultation. Please be assured that we will continue to send fire engines to automatic fire alarm calls at buildings where anyone sleeps, such as hotels and care homes, houses, and flats. We will also continue to attend fire alarm notifications at a range of existing known higher risk sites, and we will also continue to maintain our emergency response to confirmed fires in any building and to fire alarms in private dwellings. Schools are key stakeholders with respect to this consultation and therefore may be interested in the proposals outlined. 

Click here to read the full consultation document and take part.