The fire department has had a few false alarms recently with people pulling fire alarms.
Last week, the fire department responded to an apartment because fire alarms were going off, however, when they got there, one of the pull stations had been pulled even though there wasn’t a fire.
Fire Chief Cam Abrey says under the city of Dauphin’s by-laws, this is deemed a false alarm.
“There is quite a cost involved with dispatching the fire department and other emergency services. So when we find that there are false alarms like this, under the city of Dauphin’s fee schedules that they have within their by-laws, for false alarms, individuals can be charged anywhere between 350 dollars, up to 800 dollars.”
Abrey adds that when incidents like this happen it disrupts people’s lives, and causes great concern.
Fire Chief Cam Abrey says it’s not just falsely pulling a fire alarm that can result in a fine.
“People that start tampering with the life safety equipment. If they’re in a rental property and they start fooling around with the smoke alarms or heat detectors that are in there, they can also be charged for that. Because in removing some of the wirings from there, you may set off the entire alarm system. If you’re having issues with the alarm system in your rental, call your landlord, address the issue and have it taken care of properly. Please don’t try to modify any of the equipment yourself. Don’t block off any detectors, heat detectors or smoke detectors, talk to your landlord and have the situation remedied.”
The fire department deals with 5 to 10 of these kinds of incidents per year.
