False alarm? That could be costly

St. Charles firefighter/paramedic Brian Hansen prepares a ladder truck at the department's First Avenue station at the beginning of his shift Tuesday morning. The fire department is looking at ways to curb the number of false alarms it responds to. The national average is 10 percent of all calls are false alarms. St. Charles's average is 17 percent. (Sandy Bressner – sbressner@kcchronicle.com)

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The cities of St. Charles and Batavia are considering a crackdown on nuisance false fire alarms. Ordinances proposed for both towns could set fines for multiple "nuisance" false alarms with the aim of convincing building owners to fix any glitches in their systems.

The Batavia Fire Department has a draft ordinance that could be voted on this summer.

Tom Springer, Batavia's fire marshal, said that pending City Council approval, the city could start issuing fines from $50 to $300 a call, depending on the frequency of nuisance alarms.

Springer said that in 2008, city firefighters responded to multiple nuisance alarms at 14 addresses, three or more times an address.

St. Charles Fire Chief Patrick Mullen is drafting an ordinance for that city. 

"Every time a fire truck is on the street, there is an element of risk for the firefighters and people on the street," Mullen said.

"There are also costs involved, the price of gas for going back and forth. But probably the biggest benefit is gaining greater efficiency."

Last year in the U.S. there were about 721,000 nuisance false fire alarms, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

Fire officials said a nuisance false alarm is classified as mechanical or electrical failure that causes a system to sound, sometimes multiple times, and is caused by a lack of system maintenance and a lack of regular testing.

Mullen said an alarm caused by a power surge or one caused by, say, burning toast, is a false alarm but is not considered a nuisance and is not subject to fine.

The St. Charles Fire Department's last year said about 17 percent of its calls were false alarms, about 867 out of 5,000 calls, Mullen said. 

Businesses and apartment buildings are required by ordinance to have automatic alarms, which includes fire alarms wired directly to the local fire department through a telephone line or by way of digital radio signal, Mullen said.

Mullen added that there are also alarm services building owners hire that phone fire departments during emergencies.

The Geneva Fire Department answered about 3,000 calls last year.

Since the city of Geneva started fining building owners a decade ago, the number of nuisance false alarms have dropped off to nearly zero in that city.

"I can't remember the last time we fined anybody," said Stephen Olson, Geneva's fire chief.

"Our fines are $100 for the first false alarm and $125 for the second,"  Olson said.

Sugar Grove Fire Chief Marty Kunkel said his village for the past five years has had an ordinance on the books that sets fines for nuisance false alarms.

"Once they [building owners] start getting bills, you'd be surprised how fast they fix their systems," Kunkel said.

Kunkel added that he was the fire marshal for Aurora in 1997 and helped write an ordinance that  dramatically reduced the number or nuisance alarm problem in that city.