The economic cost of unwanted automatic fire alarms

Although automatic fire alarm (AFA) systems are vital technologies for informing building occupants of a fire, each year Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) responds to tens of thousands of unwanted AFA activations; equating to approximately 97% of all call-outs. The aim of this study was to estimate the economic burden of false AFA system activations by using data collected in NSW for the period 2008-2018. Costs were considered as comprising: business/government productivity losses and other related costs such as false alarm fees; injuries or fatalities sustained in collisions with a responding fire brigade vehicle; wages of FRNSW personnel and other service responders; utility costs of FRNSW; and opportunity costs to the fire brigade, residents and bystanders. This study found that in 2018/19 false AFA system activations resulted in an average economic cost of AUD$246 million per annum to NSW society in a best-case scenario, and AUD$349 million per annum in a base-case scenario; equating to an average cost of between AUD$4952 and AUD$7403 per system initiated false alarm incident. The economic cost of these unwarranted call-outs is prohibitively high and this study indicates the importance of further initiatives geared toward safely reducing the frequency of false AFA system activations.