MARKET traders and fire officers are warning that tragedy could strike if teething problems with a new £110,000 alarm system in Darwen Town Hall and markets are not corrected.

The new system was installed three months ago. The automated alarm has already sounded 13 times, sending fire fighters rushing to the scene.

Each occasion has not proved to be serious with over-sensitive sensors being blamed for triggering the emergency warnings.

Now a trader has spoken of the complacency of other stall-holders, who do not even bother to evacuate the buildings when the alarm sounds.

And a fire chief has warned that attendance at other emergencies may be delayed by the false calls.

The trader, who did not want to be named, said: " We have had so many false alarms, people don't even bother to vacate the building anymore.

"If there really was a fire someone could be seriously injured or even killed."

Station officer Peter Aspden, of Darwen fire station, said: "The brigade is experiencing growing problem across the county with apparatus faults.

"While the number of malicious calls is being reduced, in 1994, 12,227 call-outs were made as a result of apparatus problems.

"Darwen markets is one of those systems which has a fault and obviously we need to work on it to reduce the number of false alarms before a tragedy occurs."

A spokesman for Blackburn Council who own the markets complex said: "The alarm was installed by our operations department.

"There have been teething problems as it is very sensitive and renovation work on the adjacent town hall has been setting the alarm off.

"Steam from cafe kettles and other things have also caused the alarm to go off.

"We have consulted with the fire brigade and hopefully these teething complaints will sort themselves out in due course."

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