More Top Picks Best Fitbit Alternatives With Ecg
player ready...Most of the time when the Gary Fire Department responds to an alarm, there’s neither smoke nor fire, a financial and safety problem it wants to fix by levying fines on offenders.
“False alarms is a massive issue that we’re trying to address and we’re all aware of,” said Mark Jones, fire department chief of operations.
In 2015, the department responded to 720 false alarms, far exceeding any other fire department in Lake County, according to data from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. A portion of them was classified as “malicious,” meaning an alarm was pulled even though there was no real emergency. The department also responded to nearly 400 false calls caused by malfunctioning equipment.
For each alarm, the fire department dispatches two fire engines, a truck and a battalion chief, Jones said.
“Unfortunately, all false alarms are unwanted alarms, but we have to treat them like a real-life emergency is taking place. But there are adverse effects. There’s a monetary value. We have fuel and maintenance from the wear and tear on those (fire engines).”
The fire department is crafting an ordinance, similar to the one the police department passed in 2015, which would levy fines against people responsible for false alarms, he said.
The bogus calls also jeopardize the safety of people who may be dealing with a legitimate emergency during the time a unit is dispatched, Jones said.
“Let’s say someone pulls an alarm. That’s manpower and equipment that’s dispatched to check out the false alarm,” he said. “But if simultaneously a house fire comes in, now another set of engine companies have to come from a farther distance to take that call.”
Perhaps even more perilous is the toll of constant responses that prove unjustified.
“False alarms are dangerous because you can get so many of them, even people in the same building can get complacent,” Jones said. “If I live in an apartment and the fire alarm goes off three times a day, it can be like the boy who cried wolf. One of these times it could be something devastating and detrimental to one’s health and people don’t even react to the alarm.”
The Gary Police Department also responded to a whopping amount of false alarms in 2015 — more than 10,000 calls triggered by false security alarms, an average of roughly 30 a day, officials said. The cost was more than $320,000, they said.
In July 2015, Gary enacted an ordinance that allows police officers to issue a $50 citation after three false alarms within 30 days.
Commander Kerry Rice said the department hopes the fines serve as an incentive for people to pay more attention to their alarm systems and limit false alarms.
“Our No. 1 call for service for the last 25 years has been alarm calls,” Rice said, adding that 90 percent of those calls are false. “We pretty much want citizens aware that this is an issue and costs us a lot of money.”
Rice said the department started writing citations last year and he’s optimistic that will help curb the calls.
“Alarms are supposed to stop burglaries,” he said. “But this is helping burglars with us running around like a chicken with its head cut off responding to false alarms.”
Twitter @Jaconet