PITTSBURGH — When the alarm sounds, emergency crews rush to the scene. That’s what they are trained to do.
But what happens when they’re racing to false alarms, and they’ve wasted time and resources and put responders in harm’s way?
Target 11 Investigator Rick Earle looked at how some communities are taking aim at false alarms and why others are reluctant to address it.
In Carnegie, volunteer firefighters answer about 350 calls per year, and about 20 percent of those calls were going to one location.
During an 11-month time frame, firefighters responded to 61 fire alarms at the Carnegie Towers apartment complex.
Volunteer firefighter and Carnegie Councilman Phil Boyd told Target 11 that half of the calls were for a malfunctioning false alarm.
Target 11 contacted Carnegie Towers and they had no comment.
“Every time we get called out, we are in harm’s way. Anything can happen when you are rushing to respond to an alarm of any kind," said Boyd.
Because of what he calls a rising number of false alarms, Boyd proposed implementing a fee for repeat offenders. Council unanimously approved the measure last summer. After three false alarms, it will cost an offender $1,000 per call.
“That's to cover our costs, absolutely,” explained Boyd, who said he took the value of all of the department’s equipment and building and divided that by the number of calls to come up with the fee.
And Carnegie is not alone.
Target 11 discovered that the city of Pittsburgh also charges for both false fire and burglar alarms. Fines range from $15 to $350 depending on whether it’s a business or residence.
In Cranberry Township, they’ve been charging fees for false burglar and panic alarms for more than 20 years. However, they don’t charge for false fire alarms.
“The only way to really address it is to have some kind of fine or some way to force these people to get their alarms fixed so emergency responders were not going on the road unnecessarily,” said Cranberry Township Public Safety Director Jeff Scheuler, who said the fines range from $75 to $175.
During the past three years, the township has collected nearly $30,000.
“It's not to make money. It's to keep our first responders off the roads to keep everyone safe,” said Scheuler, who explained that the township is now considering charging for false fire alarms, but added there’s some reluctance because they’re worried that people will just disconnect the alarms altogether.
Boyd told Target 11 that since implementing the fee structure for false alarms, they’ve only had one false alarm call at Carnegie Towers, but he said they’ve had more than four at another apartment complex, and they will likely receive a bill very soon.