London firefighters called out 14,000 times to rescue people from lifts

One in every 10 calls received by the Fire Brigade between October 2008 and September 2009 were for help opening faulty lift doors at flats, offices, care homes and department stores. In each case a fire engine and crew was deployed at a cost of £300 a time.

There were 122 properties attended more than 10 times in the 12 month period - some more than 30 times.

Today chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, councillor Brian Coleman, said the situation had got so ridiculous that they would now be charging those who own and manage buildings where firefighters are persistently called out, a fee for each release.

"Public safety is our priority and firefighters will always attend genuine emergencies where people are shut in lifts and other means of rescue are not available," he said. "However it doesn't make sense for us to waste firefighters' time and public resources releasing people where there has not been an emergency.

"Sometimes we are called repeatedly to release people from the same buildings and that is simply not acceptable. Lift owners need to make proper provisions for their lifts - not firefighters".

In the last year firefighters were called out 1,688 times to buildings in Tower Hamlets, 1,543 times to those in Southwark, 1,355 times in Westminster and 959 times in Hackney.

Harrow, Havering, Kingston, merton, Richmond and Sutton had the least number of lift accidents reported. All had less than 100 call outs in the 12 month period.

Mr Coleman said: "Each call takes up the time of a fire engine and crew, and the knock on effect is a reduction in capacity to attend emergency incidents, carry out community safety work and provide essential training for firefighters."

He said a charge of £260 would now be made on the 10th lift release at the same building within a 12 month period and for all subsequent non-emergency lift releases.