Does the fire brigade charge for false alarms?

last week at my nieces school someone set off the fire alarm twice in the one week which means the school was evacuated until the fire brigade turned up and declared a false alarm, at the end of the week the head master had a meeting with the pupils telling then that if anyone was caught setting off the fire alarm they would be suspended and charged the fire brigade call out fee, he told them that the fire brigade were sending a bill to the school for �750 because for every false alarm the fire brigade charges the school �250 and if they are called out twice in the one week then the second visit is doubled to �500, I always thought that calling out the fire brigade was free (even for false alarms) as the fire brigade is paid for by the tax payers, was the head master just trying to scare the kids or is there a call out fee for false alarms ?