False alarms, real fines
Price tag for unnecessary emergency calls set to skyrocket
Years before he became Edmonton’s fire marshal, Tom Karpa was fielding 911 calls one night when a woman called to complain that her apartment building was shaking.
“Shaking?” Karpa asked. He walked her through a gamut of possibilities, and finally sent out firefighters. They had just pulled up to the scene when she called back.
“Oh, it’s OK, you can call them away,” she said. “I know what the problem is. There’s whales in the pipes. They’re in the sewer system and they’re shaking the building.”
False alarms rarely summon a laugh from Karpa, except in retrospect. Each call eats up precious time, puts wear and tear on expensive vehicles and increases response time if a real emergency happens.
Edmonton had more than 1,286 confirmed false fire alarms in 2012, the vast majority in commercial buildings.
In an attempt to drive down that number, the city on Jan. 1 will significantly increase fines for false alarms at commercial buildings.
There is no fine for a single false alarm, but the fine for a second false alarm will increase to $300 from $76. Fines for the third and fourth false alarms will increase to $600 and $1,200 respectively, up from $380 and $758.
The fines are not intended to be punitive; the tally resets each calendar year and borderline calls are rarely counted. The goal is to encourage building owners to maintain a functional alarm system.
Some owners haven’t been getting the message.
In 2010, Edmonton Fire Rescue levied $19,073 in fines for 95 repeat offenders, doubling in 2011 to $34,294 for 195 false callers.
Halfway through 2012, crews had already dished out $20,318 in fines for 94 repeat false alarms, including 14 frequent flyers who managed to call emergency responders four or more times.
“Maybe it’s not expensive enough,” Karpa says of the usual suspects.
“They don’t in some cases understand it’s a real fault, but after the second time you should know.”
The false alarm tally would be much higher, Karpa said, if dispatchers and investigators didn’t weed out seasonal challenges or question callers about what they actually see.
Burgers barbecued on a faraway apartment deck in the summer can look a lot like a fire. Wildfire smoke blown in from hundreds of kilometres up north can prompt dozens of calls when it gets trapped in gullies and other low-lying areas. Summer thunderstorms often trigger alarm systems as well.
The winter has its own special challenges. Low humidity, static and furnaces kicking on and off can often trigger fire alarms. Steam from a shower can trigger some alarms.
There is also the perennially potent combination of cold weather, exhaust and glowing red aircraft warning lights on highrise buildings.
Karpa cites Strathcona House on Saskatchewan Drive and 109th Street as a usual suspect for calls from concerned passersby.
“The steam and smoke on top settles on the roof,” Karpa said. “People see this red glowing because of the lights, and people phone, ‘Oh, the roof’s on fire.’”
If there is any possibility of fire, firefighters will suit up and go. False alarms are just one part of the job.
Karpa doesn’t bat an eye when asked about a recent call in which someone called 911 after spotting flames through a neighbour’s window. When crews arrived, they found a TV tuned to a channel featuring burning logs on a crackling fireplace.
And despite 32 years working virtually every job Edmonton Fire Rescue offers, Karpa has yet to see a whale.