# Commercial Fire Detection False Alarms How Do You Handle



## Insurance Engineer (Nov 23, 2011)

How does your jurisdiction handle false alarms for commercial establishments such as manufacturing, warehouses, offices, non life hazard use occupancies? Do you fine after so many false alarms? If so how much and how many free calls do they get before $$$. Are the false alarms on a calender year, or no time limit? Do you ever Not respond to an alarm? If so how many times do they need to be a problem before you stop showing up?

We find in buildings with no automatic fire sprinklers our underwriters often will request a fire detection system be installed. They figure the cost of a fire detection system is less then automatic sprinklers and will provide an early response from the FD. The installation of wireless fire detection as per NFPA 72, 2010 ed can be significantly less on an existing building then a wired system. I would hate for a business to incur the cost of a fire detection system and the FD not respond. We require all fire detection system to be monitored off site to a central station.

Thanks


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## FM William Burns (Nov 23, 2011)

True listed central station with minimum personnel etc. and providing runner service or a remote receiving station? We allow (3) within a calendar year before we begin fining the facility or alarm service provider. We investigate the causes throughly so we can document the root cause so we can fine the actual violator.

PS

We would never not respond due to the potential exposure problems that would exist if this practice were accepted as written about in Blog section previously.........it is rediculious for those jurisdictions who do this and they would be better served addressing the root causes IMHO and addressing them in a proactive manner to reduce occurances for problematic occupancies.


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## cda (Nov 23, 2011)

The boss looked into because it seemed we had a problem

Not really over long term period, just a few problem systems

And what is a false alarm ??   Kid pulls pull station?? Someone burns popcorn and smoke detector activates???

Most runs the system works as designed

Than the problem in our area rain and lightning play havec on the systems, do you fine the owner or GOD ????

We just try to get the gremlins fixed


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## mark handler (Nov 23, 2011)

City of LA

$100 penalty after the first occurrence, and escalate in $100 increments thereafter.


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## mark handler (Nov 23, 2011)

Houston Fire Department ladder truck ran a red light before colliding with a pumper truck ...

...Before overturning and coming to rest on a four-door Infiniti, the ladder truck struck a bicyclist and snapped an electric pole and tree. The collision injured 11 people, the bicyclist critically....

... a false alarm....there was no fire....

http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/heights-news/article/Police-HFD-ladder-truck-in-crash-may-have-run-1633208.php


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## hlfireinspector (Nov 23, 2011)

http://www.falsealarmreduction.com/PGCFARSDocs/ModelFireOrdinance.pdf


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## Francis Vineyard (Nov 24, 2011)

"The county will bill $100 for the third call, and the fee goes up from there to $300 every time police or fire departments respond to a false alarms after the fifth offense."

"A second part of this new ordinance requires alarm owners register with the county at no cost, but failure to register will lead to service fees up to $300 for police or fire responses to false alarms."

"When an alarm call comes in, two police units and at least one fire unit respond to the scene," instead of two trucks.

"Over three years, county police responded to 6,100 alarm calls. Only about 100 were real emergencies. "It is a waste of resources where we could be concentrating on things that are more serious," said Byers.

Ironically this became effective after Nov. 1st this year.

http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2011/oct/30/new-ordinance-false-alarms-set-take-effect-ar-1422597/

http://www.nbc29.com/story/15929317/albemarle-police-enforce-first-part-of-false-alarm-ordinance?clienttype=printable


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## Insurance Engineer (Nov 24, 2011)

Thanks folks for the info, good stuff, glad so far the FD will respond. As I indicated the fire detection systems we are talking about are for commercial buildings not homes or life hazard occupancies. We would require the fire detection system be installed and maintained as per NFPA 72 which I hope would reduce false alarms.


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## cda (Nov 24, 2011)

So what constitutes a false alarm????


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## permitguy (Nov 24, 2011)

A false alarm occurs when emergency resources are dispatched and there is no emergency.  They can be further broken down into categories (loosely quoted from NFIRS, going off memory):

Unintentional:  There was appropriate environmental stimuli to activate the system, but no fire was present, and it was not mailicious (burned toast, sweeping the floor, construction activities, etc.).

Malfunction:  There was no appropriate environmental stimuli to activate the system (induced voltage, ground fault, programming issue such as supervisory stimuli sends general alarm).

Malicious:  Purposeful activation by an occupant when they are aware of the consequences (school age kid pulls manual station, burning a paper towel under a smoke detector, etc.)

We do not fine for false alarms at all, but we are somewhat proactive in mitigating them.  Bureau staff review all false alarm incident reports and make contact with owners/managers where necessary to fix a problem.  In the rare case that it takes more than a few days to get it handled and we know more false alarms are likely, we may flag the property for a reduced response with our dispatch center.  Instead of sending an engine and a tower, both emergent, we'd send only one apparatus, non-emergent.  The reduced response would remain in place until bureau personnel have verified that the probelm is fixed.  Out of 1,500 false alarm calls per year, I'm guessing we reduce response less than 20 times.  We would never NOT respond to a facility we have received an alarm signal from.

All of this is in addition to our routine inspection program, where we verify the presence and completeness of test records for these systems.  If deficiencies were noted, we require them to provide proof of corrections.


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## cheyer (Nov 24, 2011)

We do have a fee schedule written into our ordinance....but we do have an online alarm school that the resident or business can take to waive the fee. This provides an educational bonus as well.

Just to echo others, the nuisance alarms due to a non-maintained system and the fire alarm company not placing a system on test are the overwhelming culprits


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## cheyer (Nov 24, 2011)

Forgot to mention,  Happy Thanksgiving to all!!


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## cda (Nov 24, 2011)

Can you post a link

We do have a fee schedule written into our ordinance....but we do have an online alarm school that the resident or business can take to waive the fee. This provides an educational bonus as well.


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## cheyer (Nov 24, 2011)

CDA, to make it easier, go to www.beverlyhills.org, click on government, then fire department, fire prevention, then scroll to the bottom


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## cda (Nov 24, 2011)

So they loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly.

Hills, that is.

Swimmin pools, movie stars.

I passed, can you wave my false alarm fee???

Good idea and nice way to educate the public


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## cheyer (Nov 25, 2011)

Thanks, CDA,......It's fairly new...so I'm not too sure how many people have taken advantage of it .......


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