A new study by Euralarm, the European association representing the electronic fire and security industry, looks at the causes of false alarms.

It includes a description of the processes to initiate fire service intervention, formulas to calculate false alarm ratios, as well as a methodology of the overall analysis in Germany, the UK, Switzerland, Sweden and Austria.

The study also contains recommendations and strategies to reduce false alarms, which are based on fire statistics and, in particular, the number of alarms due to detection of actual fires by fire alarm systems, as compared to the false alarm rate.

The Euralarm task group, chaired by Sebastian Festag from Heaktron, says that the impact of budget cuts and a perceived high rate of false alarms have lead to changes in the reaction of fire services to alarms. In some countries, verification is required before fire services will  respond.

The Euralarm task force argues that the topic of false alarms must be increasingly integrated into fire protection and fire alarm strategies: handling false alarms must become an active part of site management.

Original source

Euralarm