Flickering candle sparks false fire alarm in Shrewsbury

Two fire engines had been sent to Lancaster Road in Harlescott, Shrewsbury, shortly after midnight yesterday after the alarm was raised.

The call out was one of several false alarms attended by the fire service over the weekend.

It comes after it was revealed firefighters in Shropshire attended more than 1,600 false alarms at a cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds last year.

The exact cost of each call out depended on the type of equipment, but cost at least £278.69 for each pumping appliance and crew.

Neil Grove, station manager at Shrewsbury fire station, said Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service crews attended three false alarms set off by automatic fire alarms over the weekend.

He said: "We have to mobilise when we get the alert from the alarm company but the ones we attended this weekend were false alarms.

"When we turned up we found there was an issue with the system.

"So our advice is to ensure alarm systems are maintained and checked.

"We have also had a few good intent false alarm calls this weekend.

"Our advice there is to not leave candles burning when you are not at home.

"With controlled burning we urge you to contact us before so we aware of it when the calls come in to alert us. Then when it has finished burning contact us again."

One fire engine was called to the Co-operative store on Mill Street in Bridgnorth shortly after midnight yesterday, but it turned out to be a fault with an automatic fire alarm.

Elsewhere across the county, shortly after 8.15am yesterday fire control received a called reporting a fire at Atcham Business Park near Norton. One fire appliance from Wellington attended and discovered it was a false alarm classified as a malicious call from a public phone box.

Mr Grove added: "When fire crews are called on malicious calls it means they are tied up somewhere and it will take us longer to get to a real emergency that need us."