Fire engines will no longer be automatically dispatched when fire alarms go off in corporate offices, schools, hotels and theatres, under a new agreement worked out between home affairs minister Piet Hein Donner and fire chiefs.

Instead, security staff should first check if there is a real fire and if it can be put out easily by them, news agency ANP says.
Last year, fire engines were called out on 53,000 false alarms.