The price for false fire alarms is going up in 91原创 Township.
Council approved new regulations that include escalating fines for repeat offenders at the Monday, Oct. 6 evening meeting
The vote was unanimous.
Currently, there is no fine for the first false fire alarm within in a six month period, defined as 鈥渢he activation of an alarm system that results in a response from the fire department where a situation requiring such a response does not exist 鈥︹��
Every false alarm after that carries a penalty of $50.
Under the new rules, there will be no fine for the first two false fire alarms within a calendar year, $150 for third and fourth false alarms, and $300 for every offence after that.
The regulation will apply to 鈥渙wners/representatives/occupants or users of any property containing a sprinkler system or a fire alarm system.鈥�
The report from the fire department described the number of false fire alarms in the Township as 鈥渆xcessive鈥� but did not give specifics.
Under questioning from council at a previous meeting, fire chief Stephen Gamble said the number of repeat fire alarms considered excessive varies, with a 鈥渇ew businesses and institutions鈥� ringing up three or four false alarms in a single-week 鈥渞ash鈥� of alarms while others have recorded 15 or 20 in a month without making much of an effort to fix the problem.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e just let these things keep coming,鈥� Gamble said, adding he was told by another fire chief that some people view relatively cheap fines as a 鈥渃ost of doing business鈥� that doesn鈥檛 motivate them to correct the problem.
One of the problem institutions, Gamble confirmed, was Trinity Western University.
91原创 City already has an escalating fine structure for false fire alarms, with no fine for a first incident, $50 for a second, $75 for a third and $100 for every incident after that within a 12-month period.
