These two Leeds hospitals had the highest number of fire false alarms in the city

A Freedom of Information request has uncovered the locations with the highest number of false alarms triggered by Automatic Fire Alarm Systems (AFAS) at non-domestic properties for each year - all of which are managed by Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

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It said software problems caused by water getting into the system at one hospital and empty rooms at another hospital were to blame.

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (WYFRS) data shows there were 29 false alarms at Seacroft Hospital in 2017, 25 at Leeds General Infirmary in 2018 and 27 at Seacroft in 2019 until the end of October.

A hospital trust spokesman said: "We have experienced a high number of false alarms at Seacroft Hospital due to water getting into the system which led to a software problem causing some of the alarms to activate. The trust has responded to this by investing capital funding to rectify the situation.

"The increase in false alarms at Leeds General Infirmary coincided with some areas of the hospital being decanted and rooms left empty."

Both the hospital trust and the fire service said they work closely together to reduce the number of false alarms and the impact they have on each organisation - disruption and worry for hospital patients, and cost and unnecessary use of resources for the fire service.

According to data secured by the YEP, there were a total of 1,115 false alarms generated by AFAS at non-domestic properties across the Leeds district in the 10 months to the end of October 2019.

At that rate, the total for the full year was likely to stand at more than 1,300 - the highest level since 2017 when the figure was 1,213.

A fire service spokesman said: "WYFRS are committed to reducing the number of false alarms generated by automatic fire alarm systems due to the negative impact the have on both the safety of occupants and the wider community.

"False alarms instil complacency and as such, occupants of premises where false alarms occur frequently are less likely to react to a genuine fire alarm. False alarms also tie up our crews at premises making them unavailable to attend genuine emergencies."

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Figures published for the whole of West Yorkshire show just how far the service has come in tackling this issue over the past 15 years.

In 2004/05, there were 176.82 such false alarms for every 1,000 domestic properties in the county.

This had fallen to 44.98 by 2013/14 - the year before a cost recovery process was introduced - and 34.28 by 2018/19.

West Yorkshire Fire Brigade Union secretary Martyn Bairstow said hospitals had always been a source of higher false alarms, although the volume has reduced significantly.

"At the start of my career in the late 1990s and early 2000s where they were some places that we were going to daily; places like Lynfield Mount and High Royds psychiatric hospitals," he said.

Mr Bairstow said AFAS had become much more sophisticated since then, helping to reduce the number of false alarms and, in turn, the pressure on precious service resources.

"The service has always aimed to cut down on false alarms," he added. "I think they will always endeavour to because they do tie up resources."

One measure was the introduction of a cost recovery process in 2014, with aim of encouraging those responsible for AFAS to manage them appropriately.

Non-domestic premises with repeated false alarms are charged once the number of calls in a 12-month period exceeds three, with the bill being £350 plus VAT for each additional false alarm that results in a crew being dispatched.

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The fire service spokesman said it believes the policy has been a "huge success" and contributed to reduced attendances to false alarms.

And although the annual numbers appear to be reaching a plateau, he said premises that rectify issues are inevitably replaced by new premises which have issues arise.

"We are continually looking at new initiatives to support the reduction of false alarms and unwanted fire signals but do so with the realisation that whilst we can reduce them, to totally eradicate them would be the ultimate goal," the fire service spokesman said.

"We work with system designers and manufacturers to support the development of new equipment that will help achieve this."

Meanwhile, the hospital trust said it met regularly with the fire service to discuss false alarm activity and programmes to reduce it.

The hospital trust spokesman said: "A false fire alarm does cause disruption to our services and also creates alarm among our patients. Patient care is paramount in everything we do so that’s why we have acted to make our systems as robust as possible to reduce the number of false alarms that were happening."

He said there were robust systems in place to stand the fire service down if it was assured by investigation that it was a false alarm.

"The main challenges we experience are that healthcare fire alarm systems are very complex and often have in excess of 2,500 devices on one system that makes them very sensitive so we do sometimes experience issues such as people activating the alarm by accident," he added.

The YEP also requested figures on the cost of false alarms to the fire service and the sums recovered, but this was refused on the basis that to compile the data would cost more than the appropriate limits set out in the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The Yorkshire Evening Post's Your Right to Know campaign is using Freedom of Information legislation and official data to take a closer look at how your taxes are spent and how the city's public organisations are performing. Email [email protected] to tell us about any issues you would like us to investigate.