A senior fire service officer has admitted that the supply and fitting of interlinked fire alarms is a “minefield”.
New rules came into force at the start of the month and councillors have found themselves facing questions from confused and fearful constituents as the alarm systems become harder to find in stores and on-line.
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There are also problems getting qualified tradespeople to fit the systems.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service supplies and fits interlinked systems in the homes of those deemed most at risk, but the service is seeing its own supply dwindling fast and is now struggling to replace supplies as kits have trebled in price.
Station Manager James Robertson from the SFRS was giving a quarterly report to Livingston South Local Area Committee. He told the councillors the service had faced ever-increasing demand for the interlinked fire alarms.
At the same time a worldwide shortage of key components of the systems including semiconductors and microchips has developed. This has added to the shortage of kits and rising costs.
Councillor Peter Heggie sought reassurances on what the fire service could do for vulnerable people looked after by carers.
He added that despite the information posted by the fire service and the council there was still confusion for many trying to source the kits.
“Two people I have spoken to in the last week have bought the wrong systems,” he added.
Mr Robertson told the meeting: “ We cannot advise where people should purchase the kits. We can advise on the type they should be purchasing and we can advise on what they should be looking to buy."
He added that he had problems tracking down a system for his own home. “I’ve come up against that myself. I’m still looking to get a system bought. It can be bit of a minefield trawling the internet trying to source the right system.”
Councillor Heggie asked about additional funding given to the SFRS to provide more kits.
“The funding is in place, said Mr Robertson, but he added: “Our normal source, where we have purchased alarms from, they do not have supply. We have placed an order with another supplier and those alarm systems are three times the price due to supply and demand. The extra funding will not go as far as we expected.”
Any future funding for systems would be down to a Scottish Government decision.
However Mr Robertson gave assurances the service would continue to give advice and guidance on detection systems and fit alarms in homes of those most at risk “ We would not leave a property without detection,” he said.
In the most vulnerable cases the SFRS works with partner agencies such as the council. Where householders were deemed most at risk the advice would be to pursue installation of careline systems which provide direct links to care agencies which can alert the SFRS in emergencies.
