By Michelle Lynch
Reading Eagle, Pa.
READING, Pa. — City Council has approved a higher fee for false fire alarms, after the Reading Fire Department responded to about 300 needless alarms in just three months.
Council voted unanimously at its regular meeting Monday to amend the city code, setting the fee at $500 for each needless or false alarm.
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Under the previous schedule, the first false alarm in a calendar year carried no charge. Fees then increased from $80 for a second alarm to as much as $550 once a property reached 13 false alarms.
The ordinance defines needless alarms as alarm system activations caused by something other than smoke, fire or the system’s intended use.
The ordinance also identifies causes such as failure to protect detectors from construction dust or fumes, defective medical alarms and intentional activation when no emergency exists, Fire Marshal Jeremy Searfoss said.
Searfoss said the ordinance is not intended to penalize people when an alarm operates properly, such as when smoke from cooking activates a detector.
“If someone burns food, that fire alarm did what it’s supposed to do,” he said. “We do not charge for burned food calls.”
Instead, Searfoss said, many needless alarms stem from systems that have not been properly inspected or maintained.
The department’s aim, he said, is to get owners to invest in correcting their alarm systems rather than simply collect fines.
“A lot of times, we will completely waive the needless alarm bill because they spent the money where it should go for the protection of the building occupants,” Searfoss said.
A secondary goal, he said, is to replace the former billing system with a single fee that is easier to administer.
The legislation initially proposed a $400 fee, but council agreed to raise it to $500 on Councilman Rafael Nunez’s recommendation and after discussing concerns about the impact on residents and small businesses.
Small businesses account for a very small percentage of the problematic alarms, Searfoss said, noting that property owners may appeal charges.
Reading officials compared the city’s fees with those in Scranton , Allentown and Bethlehem , he said, and found that some charges in those cities are higher.
“The number doesn’t matter to me,” Searfoss said. “Our biggest issue is having a flat fee so that we can track that and we can bill more efficiently.”
Searfoss said the department will work with property owners before turning to enforcement.
“Part of the biggest thing that we do first is education; enforcement comes after that,” he said.
Does your department charge for repeated false alarms, and do you think fines actually reduce unnecessary responses?
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