Avon Fire and Rescue Fire Engines Respond to Fire Alarm Central Library Bristol

April 11, 2018 Chopsy Baby

Bristol fire fighters responded to fire alarms at the city’s Central Library this evening. Five appliances from Avon Fire and Rescue Temple, arrived at the library, including one aerial ladder platform.

The five engines packed the small section of Deanery Road off of College Green, with an additional Specialist Foam Unit seen headed towards Anchor Road.

A fire engine responds to an alarm at the Bristol Central Library at 5pm this evening

Five fire engines with specialist foam unit heading along Park Street

Fire fighters emerge from the library and leave the scene

The Central Library is closed all day on Wednesdays

No books were harmed in the potential fire related emergency

In March this year, Avon Fire & Rescue Service (AF&RS) launched a campaign urging businesses across the area to reduce the number of false alarms on their premises.

According to their statistics, appliances in the region responded to more than 5,500 incidents triggered by automated fire alarm systems between April 2016 to March 2017.

Responding to these false alarms costs £1 billion a year nationwide.

Speaking of the campaign, Steve Quinton, Head of Risk Reduction at Avon Fire & Rescue Service, said: “Last year our crews were called out 5,583 times to false alarms. These are all totally accidental but I don’t think people appreciate the full impact on the fire and rescue service.

“While there is a significant impact on our ability to plan and deliver staff training or safety work in the community, the reality is that false alarms also mean our crews may not be available to provide life-saving help at a house fire or a road traffic collision.

“This campaign is about raising awareness of the issue and asking for the public’s help and support in driving down the number of false alarms we attend.”

Automated false alarms trigger a full emergency response, meaning the appliances tied up on the call are not available to other emergencies.

The most common cause of false alarms were found to be:

Fumes from steam and aerosols
Cooking – such as burnt toast
Sudden changes to humidity and temperature
People smoking near detectors
Contractors working beneath live or uncovered detectors

The Avon Fire and Rescue website states that the impact of all false alarms passes the ‘cost of attendance to Council Tax payers.’

Not great when community groups in Bristol are already fighting Bristol City Council cuts to the current library service again.

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