The Bury Times report:
MILLIONS of pounds of taxpayers’ cash is being wasted due to automatic alarms, new figures show.
Greater Manchester Fire Service crews follow a protocol to go to community buildings such as hospitals when automatic alarms sound — but there is an emergency less than one per cent of the time.
In the 12 months up until the end of June this year, crews based at Bury Fire Station were called out 177 times – equating to £400 each occasion when staff wages, fuel and apparatus maintenance is taken into account – amounting to a total cost of £70,800.