posted on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 3:11 PM
by
administrator
Sacramento, CA, Fire Department, Wants Fines for False Alarms
With firefighters responding to an increasing number of false alarms, the Sacramento, CA, Fire Department wants the city to go after property owners whose faulty fire alarms keep going off.
The city's Law and Legislation Committee is scheduled to discuss an ordinance that would levy fines on businesses and homeowners whose fire alarms go off in error three times or more. The first false alarm would result in no action, and the city would send a warning letter to property owners after a second false alarm.
Fines for a fifth false alarm could reach as high as $450, a city staff report shows.
False alarms represent roughly 15 percent of responses by the Fire Department, about 8,700 calls a year, a staff report states. Nearly half of those false alarms are caused by lack of maintenance.
"Response to automatic fire alarm system false alarms resulted in fire stations being unavailable for actual emergency response hundreds of times last year," the staff report states.
Other cities -- including Fresno, Roseville, Stockton and Yuba City -- have programs similar to the one being proposed in Sacramento.
If approved by the committee, the proposed ordinance would be passed on to the City Council for adoption.