SMOKE alarms are causing chaos in sheltered housing throughout the Stroud District Council area prompting fears that a real emergency may one day be ignored.

The super-sensitive alarms automatically trigger a call out from the fire service when the residential scheme manager is off duty.

Ron Gore, chairman of the United Sheltered Accommodation Panel chairman, said that 99 out of 100 calls to Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service are false alarms and one sheltered housing units has had up to five call outs a week recently.

"These smoke alarms are very sensitive and can be activated by toast just being cooked but not burning or even steam from a kettle or saucepan," he said.

All 29 sheltered housing units, featuring 770 residences housing around 850 people, are installed with the hard-wired smoke alarms.

Now concern is so great Mr Gore has submitted a report for discussion at the next Housing Forum meeting at Ebley Mill on Tuesday, January 18 (7pm).

"If the fire brigade keep coming out time after time after time to a call which is bogus, because of burnt toast or steam off a pan, you can understand that the urgency is going to wane," he said. "It is a concern and I'm looking for answers," he said.

He fears the "cry wolf" crisis is compromising the fire service and "diluting the importance of the smoke alarm system".

"It's possible that at the same moment another fire call comes in and obviously they're going to have to make a decision to attend that one or the one from the sheltered scheme."

Fire brigade spokeswoman Beverley Booth said this week that in the wake of concerns voiced at a meeting with sheltered accommodation managers fire and county council representatives were checking the district's units in a bid to cut false alarms.

She said: "More than likely the smoke alarms are positioned incorrectly. "If it is burnt toast then it is in fact a small fire and not a bogus call.

Asked if firefighters were frustrated by the false alarms caused by steaming pans and smoking toasters, she replied: "It's part of our job. I'm sure that Mr Gore's statistics are correct for him but it just sounds like a bit of a throwaway comment by him that there are five alarms a week."