More than half of fire calls false alarms

More than half of all calls to the Fire and Rescue Service last year were false alarms.

Of the 1,460 callouts which firefighters attended, 936 were unwarranted or nuisance calls.

The year before there were 1,677 callouts with 1,053 being caused by automatic fire detection.

The Isle of Man Fire and Rescue Service says it is continuing to reduce the figures through education and advice including follow up visits from fire safety officers.

From April firefighters will introduce a new risk based approach where they won't respond to some calls at certain properties.