What is a false alarm?

The Fire Service define a false alarm as, any call attended by the fire brigade, where there was no genuine fire or other emergency requiring intervention to prevent injury, death or property life.

The NZFS attends around 20,529 false alarm calls annually and at some Fire Stations, false alarms generate from 50-70% of their callouts.

The majority of these calls are generated by automatic fire alarm systems and it is the management of these type of unwanted false alarms that the NZFS promotes.

Your fire alarm system — your fire safety

It is important to understand how your fire alarm system including the fire detection installed operates, for the safety of all the building occupants. Lack of knowledge is often a reason why unwanted false alarm activation occurred. If unsure speak to your fire alarm agent.

Guide to selection and location of fire detectors [Download PDF, Acrobat 5.0 or later, 61Kb]

Impact of false alarms

False alarms impact on the operations of the NZFS as well as the general public.

View 'Why reduce false alarms' page for reasons why false alarms should be reduced.

Contact details

For further assistance in false alarm prevention contact your local fire safety dept, and in the case of false alarm charging the false alarm administrator falsealarm.administrator@fire.org.nz