University’s false-alarm close shave

The New Zealand Fire Service could previously charge commercial premises a $1000 fee for false alarms and recover costs for responding to hazardous substance incidents.

Massey University may not have to worry about the possibility of being billed for false alarms any more, but the university will still try to stop them from happening.

The university could theoretically have been charged at least $65,000 last year under the old system, but fire services have been reorganised under the Fire and Emergency New Zealand banner, and there have been changes to regulations and funding.

Powers to recover costs of false alarms and rural fires have been removed.

The New Zealand Fire Service could previously charge commercial premises a $1000 fee for false alarms and recover costs for responding to hazardous-substance incidents. The Government brought in a new offence and penalty regime designed to criminalise risky fire behaviour, but as the new organisation was funded out of insurance increases, recovery costs would no longer be charged for.

This will be music to the ears of Massey University, which had 65 false alarms on the Manawatu¯ campus alone in 2017.

But a spokeswoman for Massey said the university would continue to try to keep false alarms to a minimum. ‘‘This will continue to be our practice, as our concern is not whether there is a charge for a false alarm, but rather that we do not unnecessarily occupy emergency services, while of course ensuring safety for students, staff and the public on our campus is a priority.’’

Fire and Emergency New Zealand chief financial officer Brett Warwick said when the Government decided to combine the service’s rural and urban organisations, it was decided a broader levy should fund it.

The levy is paid on insurance for contents, property and motor vehicles, to reflect the broader non-fire emergency work done by firefighters. Locally, this means councils no longer need to recover the costs of fighting fires.

Warwick said Fire and Emergency NZ was in the process of developing a compliance and enforcement strategy, which would guide it on how the organisation would use its powers, such as prosecutions.

Rural services were previously funded from a levy, council rates, a rural fire grant assistance scheme, the Department of Conservation, forest owners and land holders through levies and cost-recovery from people responsible for rural fires.

Manawatu¯ District Council spokesman Paul Stein said even though the council would not be directly paying for rural fire services though rates, it would indirectly still be paying through an insurance increase.

The council did not know what the exact cost would be yet.