Alarm systems

[st34ff]

The company I run with had 75% of our calls in 1998 as alarm calls. We see this as a serious problem. I would like to know what other departments/towns are doing to combat this. Are you fining? If yes, who gets the money? are you changing responce tatics for alarm systems? Any other comments will be a help. Thank you!

[JIMIE3]

I believe our Fire Marshall has the ability to fine after a certain number of false calls per year. Unfortunately the money will go into the general fund for the city. Also leaves a bad tatse in the business owners mouth. So we don't fine very often. Response is 1 engine to go check out the business. We generally wait till the rep. shows up and check out interior. If have alot of windows can checkout from exterior. We do not use forcible entry unless there is obvious need. We have rolled up on very few workers that were called in by alarm company. Did have one alarm company notify us of a fire alarm about two hours after the 3rd alarm for that structure was pulled.

[BSnyd.]

Ref: Alarm problems

In my district we have two (2) gov't entities- Town of Bel Air & Harford County gov'ts. My dept. pushed to have a fining system in place for repeat offenders of alarm malfunctions @ the County level. The Town of Bel Air piggybacked this ordinance and is also in place. The fines are as follows as best as I can remember:

3 alarm malf. in 30 days ($100)
>5 in 6 months ($200) and an additional $100 for everytime after that. The system is also considered to be "out of service" at this time and the FM than gets involved and can halt occupancy if dictated.

We would like to "up" the fines because stores such as Home Depot, Hechts, and Best Buy oftentimes chose to just pay the fine instead of fixing the system. These big companys feel its easier to pay than fix.

My company does not reap any $ from the fines, this goes to County or Town gov'ts. The only good thing with this is that it makes the ordinance easier to pass. Local companies do fix the problem ASAP when they hear that there are fines if they don't fix their fire alarm.

If you want I can E-mail or fax a copy of our local law ref: alarm fines.

E-mail me at billfire@earthlink.net if interested.



------------------

[nbfd131]

Our city uses the 3 strikes and your out theory. All alarms are run through our PD so they get the money. They get three false alarms of any type in one year or they get a citation for each addition one.