Greensburg considers crackdown on false alarm fire calls

As many as seven trucks manned by volunteers hit the streets every time Greensburg Fire Department gets a call for an automatic fire alarm.

They race to an address, not knowing what they’re going to find when they get there.

But about 20% of the time, such a call turns out to be a false alarm, typically caused by some kind of mechanical or programming malfunction with the automatic fire alarm system, said fire Chief Tom Bell. That type of call unnecessarily puts a lot of resources on the road, just to turn around and head back to their respective stations.

“We take every alarm like it’s an actual fire, you have to,” he said.

Greensburg is considering cracking down on those false alarms in an effort to hold property owners accountable for malfunctions, particularly when firefighters repeatedly are called to the same address. Council is expected to introduce a bill Monday that would levy fines on property owners in an effort to reduce demand on first responders and equipment, according to a draft of the ordinance.

Greensburg solicitor Zachary Kansler said he has been working on the proposed ordinance for the past few months after council learned how many times firefighters were being summoned to calls that weren’t emergencies.

“This is a tremendous waste of resources and volunteer time,” Kansler said.

Greensburg’s current rules regarding false alarms are outdated, Bell said. There have been ongoing issues at apartment buildings in the city.

“Those are the types of things that we want to try to stop,” he said.

A false alarm can be caused by some kind of malfunction with the alarm system for no apparent reason. Fire calls for situations such as burnt food or smoking do not qualify as a false alarm, he said, because the fire alarm was working as intended.

Between Nov. 1, 2024 and Oct. 31, Greensburg firefighters responded to 177 false alarms, inside and outside the city, that were a result of a lack of system maintenance and not an emergency, according to a report provided by Bell. During that year, the department had 2,500 alarms.

He said he hopes the proposed ordinance, if passed, will push property owners to get their problems fixed.

If city council gives it a final OK in December, the ordinance would go into effect Jan. 1.

Property owners would be fined when there are three false alarms in a 30-day period and five in a year, and each time someone fails to respond within 30 minutes to reset or repair the system. Owners of commercial residential structures would face a $250 fine for violations and owner-occupied homes would be fined $100.

“If a property owner fails to take corrective action to repair the system and stop false alarms, they will be penalized,” Kansler said.

Failure to pay fines could result in revocation of occupancy permits and a lien on the property for the city to recoup costs related to repairing the alarm system.

Violations can be waived if the alarm system is fixed within 36 hours, according to a draft of the ordinance.