The Government of Western Australia, Department of Fire & Emergency Services has sent a notice to raise awareness of firefighters unnecessarily attending false fire alarm and security alarm activations for privately monitored premises.
Prior to ringing 000, private alarm monitoring companies must ensure they contact the owner or occupier, or nominated contact for the premises to confirm the activation is not a false fire alarm or a security alarm.
A false fire alarm is where the department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) is alerted to attend a premise in response to an alarm, where there is no fire.
DFES introduced a fee, which is currently $920, for the attendance to a false fire alarm for Direct Brigade Alarm (DBA) premises in January 2016. A DBA premises is where an automatic signalling device has been installed, providing a direct link to the DFES Communications Centre.
Currently DFES does not charge for the attendance to a false fire alarm for privately monitored premises, however a fee can be issued to the owner or occupier under section 3671 of the Fire and Emergency Services Act 1998.
To reduce the number of false fire alarms attended for privately monitored premises DFES will commence a pilot project issuing letters to the owner or occupier when firefighters attend a false fire alarm or a security alarm activation. The letter will request the owner or occupier rectify the cause of the activation and confirm that their contact details with the monitoring company are current. The results of the pilot project will be reviewed after six months to determine if additional strategies are required to ensure DFES is not unnecessarily attending false fire alarms.
Source: https://www.asial.com.au/news/privately-monitored-false-fire-alarms
