False fire alarms waste £37m every year

The London Fire Brigade attends a false alarm once every 10 minutes — at a cost of £37 million a year.

There were 55,719 false alarms last year with hospitals and Heathrow airport the main culprits. But the number of false alarm call-outs has decreased annually from 71,679 in 2007.

An LFB spokesman said: “The Brigade works closely with organisations across the capital, such as hospitals, universities, hotels and airports, in a bid to reduce the number of false alarms it is called out to.”

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act showed St George’s Hospital in Tooting had 158 false alarms last year — but that was down from 181 in 2010 and 204 in 2008.