The fire service says false alarms are frequently triggered by cooking fumes, dust, or a lack of maintenance, leading to unnecessary call-outs for fire crews.
False call-outs for firefighters in Northern Ireland over the past five years have cost over £8million, it has been revealed.
Between April 1 2020 to March 31 2025, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) were called out to 47,901 incidents due to faulty/false fire alarms. This ranged from a high of 10,371 incidents in 2023/24 to a low of 8,471 in 2020/21.
This deployment cost the fire service £8,393,382 in terms of staffing and vehicles. That’s according to data obtained by Belfast Live through a Freedom of Information request.
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The millions spent has risen in that five year period from a low of £1,401,792 in 2020/21 to a high of £1,905,960 in 2024/25.
The fire service says false alarms are frequently triggered by cooking fumes, dust, or a lack of maintenance, leading to unnecessary call-outs for fire crews.
A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service said: “The impact of false alarms includes diverting emergency services away from people who may be in life-threatening situations and who need urgent help, disruption of businesses due to time wasted and loss of business, discouragement of people taking alarm signals seriously, and a drain on public finances.
“Fire alarm systems provide an early warning in the event of a fire, representing one of the most effective methods to ensure the safety of businesses, staff, and customers. Unfortunately, most signals from these systems do not indicate actual fires. Instead, they are often false alarms, frequently triggered by cooking fumes, dust, or a lack of maintenance, leading to unnecessary call-outs for our fire crews.”
The NIFRS also confirmed that from February 1, 2024, it has introduced a new False Alarm Policy to reduce the growing challenge of unnecessary call-outs.
The spokesperson added: “Commercial premises, such as factories, offices and shops, that are occupied and do not contain sleeping accommodation will be required to verify there is a fire before contacting emergency services. This policy does not impact residential settings such as hospitals, care homes, hotels and dwellings.
“This change in response strategy ensures that firefighters are available to attend actual emergencies and engage in more community safety and prevention work.. Our main priority is the protection of life and property, so we will always attend automatic fire alarms if there are signs of a fire.”
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