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A West Midlands university has come under the spotlight for the number of false alarms the fire and rescue service has been called out to at student accommodation sites over the last three years.
According to a report in the Sunday Mercury based on a Freedom of Information request by the newspaper, firefighters have attended 464 false alarms at Birmingham City University student accommodation sites between September 2006 and May 2009. Of those, it’s reported, 148 were caused by people cooking, 62 from smoking cigarettes and 39 from hair and beauty equipment such as curling tongs.
The precise figures, however, are subject to some confusion because of the different methods of recording them and because not all student accommodation is classified as such in the address details captured by the fire and rescue service. Speaking to FSE, West Midlands Fire and Rescue said that although they had also received a Freedom of Information request from the Sunday Mercury, their own figures were different to those in the report and that in any case, their information on false alarms is not captured in the same way.
West Midlands figures show that there was a total of 233 false alarms over the three year period, roughly evenly split between malicious calls and those with ‘good intent’. In addition, the total number of false alarms from automated systems in the same period was 1467.
The president of the students union at Birmingham City University told the Sunday Mercury that the union does everything it can to educate students about fire safety risks, and he didn’t think that any prank calls came from Birmingham City students as non-students could gain access to the halls of residence.
A university spokesperson told the newspaper that it works closely with the fire and rescue service to reduce the number of false alarms, including fire service involvement in student inductions and investment in new equipment.
A spokesperson for West Midlands Fire and Rescue told FSE: “Any hoax or false alarms can put lives at risk. Through our fire safety centres, we work closely with universities and student unions at freshers weeks and throughout the year, to educate students about fire prevention and the risk of endangering lives if malicious false alarm calls are made.”
Birmingham City University did not respond to requests from FSE for a comment.