In Styria

Hundreds of false alarms keep fire departments on their toes

Of the 1969 alarms caused by fire alarms in Graz last year, only 457 actually required extinguishing work.

(Bild: Patrick Huber)

The Styrian figures show: The majority of deployments caused by fire alarm systems turn out to be in vain. This is quite a burden for volunteers - the triggers incur high costs.

Many things can trigger a fire alarm: Smoke, dust particles, water vapor, welding work - or even a technical defect. However, it happens remarkably often that such an alarm startles firefighters for nothing. Thomas Meier, press spokesman for the Styrian Fire Brigade Association, calculates: in 2024, there were 13,000 fire incidents in the Styrian regions. Exactly 2,685 of these were triggered by alarm systems, although there were only 195 actual fires.

This means that only a good seven percent were real alarms in the previous year. A big burden for the local fire departments? "Of course it's exhausting because the volunteers have to get up in the middle of the night or leave work during the day," says Meier. However: "Outside of Graz, there are around 2,000 systems across Styria - so on average, each one generates one false alarm per year."

Every alarm must be taken seriously, emphasizes fire councillor Gerald Wonner.

(Bild: BF Graz)

In Graz, professional firefighters are responsible for the exits. Gerald Wonner sees false alarms as daily business: "We classify every fire alarm we receive as a fire incident. We have to go to the property and investigate the cause of the alarm," he says. This is also confirmed by Graz Fire Director Klaus Baumgartner: "We always have to assume that it is a real fire incident, although we are well aware of the high number of false and deceptive alarms." In the previous year, this was the case 528 times due to a false technical alarm, 596 times due to "deception" (such as steam) and 53 times due to a malicious trigger.

Such an alarm can be expensive for those responsible: 645.85 euros are due according to the tariff regulations of the Graz professional fire department - at least 421.20 euros apply for the rest of our province. The money generated by unnecessary call-outs relieves the system, but does not compensate for the volunteer work. Industrial and hotel businesses should maintain their facilities and private individuals should refrain from smoking indoors, even in winter. After all, avoiding false alarms also means appreciating the hard work of the firefighters.