(a) No person shall silence, reset or otherwise disable in anyway a fire alarm in its normal state, or an alarm that has activated, without permission from a fire department officer or the Fire Code Official.
(b) No person shall ignore a fire alarm or notification of a fire condition or fail to evacuate the premises or area of alarm annunciation.
Subsections (a) and (b) do not apply to: (a) Certified alarm technicians working on an alarm or sprinkler system may silence or disable an alarm, in whole or part, upon notifying the fire department or the Fire Code Official. (b) One or two-family dwellings.
(c) Alarm users shall be responsible for multiple false alarms sent by alarm systems on premises under their control.
False alarm fees shall be imposed based on the number of false alarms sent by one Alarm System within a thirty-day period beginning with the first false alarm. A thirty (30) day grace period following the installation of a new Alarm System, beginning on the activation date provided by the registered Alarm Business installing the Alarm System, will be given during which no alarms will be counted as false alarms for the purposes of imposing fees.
(1) On the second false alarm within a thirty (30) day period, the Fire Code Official, or his/her designee, shall issue a compliance order to the owner/operator ordering the system be inspected and serviced by a certified alarm technician.
(2) On the third false alarm within a thirty (30) day period, a fee of one hundred fifty dollars ($150.00) shall be imposed. However, such fee may be waived if the owner/operator provides documentation that a certified alarm technician has inspected, identified, and corrected the issue triggering the alarm.
(3) On the fourth and each subsequent alarm within a thirty (30) day period, a fee of two hundred dollars ($200.00) shall be imposed for each incident.
(4) The Fire Chief and Fire Code Official maintain discretion as to the imposition of fines and penalties on a case-by-case basis.
(Ord. 2006-34. Passed 4-27-06.)