Statement from Assistant National Commander Bill Butzbach

The Fire Service takes its role in protecting and assisting the public very seriously and its operational decisions are based on sound, evidence-based practice and procedures.

At the end of April, the Fire Service standardised its national response when investigating automatic alarms from many sprinklered buildings. In almost all cases, these alarms are false alarms. The decision was made to send two pumps and eight firefighters to investigate the first alarm, as was already happening in over half of the country’s sprinklered buildings. This reflects the low level of risk and ensures that we have more resources available to respond to genuine emergencies which happen while we are also attending a false alarm.

On the rare occasion when there is a fire in a building with sprinklers, the sprinklers will extinguish it or control it until we arrive. lf other alarms in the building are activated, or 111 calls confirm a fire, then we would immediately send additional appliances. Officers on appliances are also empowered to request additional resources if they are needed.

Senior officers have carried out risk assessments of buildings with sprinklers installed based partly on information from the operational officers and their crews who know the buildings and any additional risks.. As with any risk assessment, it is open to continual review as new information is brought to our attention by our crews or other agencies regarding the use of the building or any particular hazards.

A few staff are continuing to respond to these automatic alarm calls with more than two appliances, despite the National Commanders instruction implementing the changed response. Like any employer we follow standard management procedures if an employee refuses to carry out their duties. As part of this it is quite proper to ask for an explanation when lawful instructions are not followed and point out the policies and procedures that the employee is bound by.

ENDS

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