West Yorkshire firefighters called to thousands of false alarms - even for burnt toast
Firefighters in West Yorkshire have been called out to thousands of false alarms - including 691 reports for cooking and “burnt toast”.
In a briefing to West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority’s Safety Committee, new figures show that crews were called to 3,537 false alarms across the county in just 17 months.
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While that figure was down on the previous year by 189 reports, the Yorkshire Evening Post can reveal that false alarms still make up over 40 per cent of all operational demand for that reporting period.
Between April 2024 and September 2025, the service was called to 13,557 incidents which is up by 20 per cent on the same period - and 1,266 more calls than the three-year average.
Firefighters attend on average 86 incidents a day with Leeds seeing the highest levels of operational demand with a daily average of around 25.
During that time crews have attended almost 7,000 fires which is up by 2,554 on the same period last year alone.
The report warns the rise in fires could be linked to the fact Spring this year was the driest on record for the whole country.
Of those reports 4,216 fires were believed to have been started deliberately while 2,761 were thought to have been accidental. Meanwhile, 61 fires were deliberately started in secure accommodation.
The report to West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service Authority's Community Safety panel said: “ The driest year in over a century resulted in a large increase in the number of secondary fire we have attended.
“This is a pattern recognised by fire and rescue services across the UK.
“Our understanding of risk underpins our resourcing, and this has enables us to continue delivering a high level of performance against our risk- based planning assumptions.
“There has been a detrimental impact on the number of Safe & Well and site-specific risk information visits we have been able to undertake.
“Incident types which impact on life and property have remained stable, with injuries resulting from fire reducing. “