SMOKE from burning toast sent firefighters racing to Burnley and Rossendale hospitals 11 times last year.

In fact, the fire brigade responded to 113 fire alerts at the two hospitals - even though, in the event, there were only two actual fires to deal with, both of them at Burnley General.

The vast majority were "good intent" false alarms - but they cost taxpayers £42,000 based on special fire service charges, says a report to Burnley Health Trust board.

The situation has left trust fire safety officer Paul Roberts fuming.

"The fire brigade cannot be in two places at once and these good intent calls, many of which were avoidable, place the wider community at risk," he said.

Apart from the burnt toast calls, five good intent alarms were triggered by cooking fumes, 19 resulted from contractors' working and two from cigarette smoking in the no-smoking hospitals.

Mr Roberts said in a report: "Unfortunately we have not seen the reduction in fire calls which we are aiming for.

"In fact, the calls have increased by some four per cent and the two main areas of concern remain as burnt toast/meals and contractors.

"During 1998 we must strengthen our efforts to reduce these nuisance calls and aim once again for a 10 per cent reduction."

Mr Roberts says staff training has been disappointing, with only 56 per cent of staff attending training sessions.

However, audits had shown a high standard of fire safety compliance at the trust and contraventions of fire certificates had been minimal and with more care could be avoided altogether.

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