Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue will only respond to automatic fire alarms if they are at a high-risk building, unless a fire is confirmed, from October 10.

This change is intended to cut down on false alarms and ensure firefighting resources are available for genuine emergencies.

High-risk buildings are those that specifically house vulnerable people, provide sleeping accommodation for people or represent a critical community asset.

They include private residences, care homes, mobile homes, house boats, hotels, guest houses, schools, detention facilities, hospitals, hospices, zoos, kennels and high profile heritage buildings such as Blenheim Palace.

Critical community infrastructure such as certain military establishments and telecoms and utilities infrastructure are also classed as high-risk.

The service has recommended businesses take several measures to minimize false alarms, including updating fire safety risk assessments, logging and analysing false alarms to identify patterns, and installing modern, upgraded alarm systems.

Protective covers on manual call points, regular maintenance of fire detection systems and seeking advice from fire safety professionals and alarm system providers have also been suggested.

By reducing false alarms, overall safety will be increased by ensuring alarms are taken seriously, disruption to business will be reduced, making them more productive, the fire service's resources will be available for genuine emergencies and the risk of road accidents from emergency responses will be lower.