... or is there?

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/feb/18/fire-alarm-doesnt-mean-...

Excerpts:

"The departments will not respond to calls from security companies unless the resident or someone else sees or smells smoke. Previously, an alarm was sufficient to trigger a call from the security company to the fire department for response.

"Kurtzman, though, questions what would happen if he were out of town or, in a worst-case scenario, if he and his wife were unconscious in their burning home.

"In that circumstance, ADT would call the home and nobody would answer — and the Fire Department would not respond."

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Why bother installing a fire alarm system if it's assumed that it will just send out false alarms?

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If the homeowners are doing this, they have something to hide. Average joe will be more than happy to come say hello and explain the cause if they know it. We always look for the locked on detector before resetting the system to make sure their whim is correct.
I was working with the City of Gaffney and responded to a fire alarm at Champion Textiles. It had just stopped raining and we had a light fog in the area but went on scene with nothing showing. Upon arrival a drive around the plant was performed and still no visible signs of smoke or fire. (This is a huge building) We waited on the key holder to arrive and did a walk through of the building until we located the alarm panel where we found the alarm showing from a penthouse on the roof. After locating the penthouse, which was about a 40' x 40' building on top of the roof, we found that it was blowing smoke from both entrance doors.

This is a good reason to always treat every call like the real thing.
If they are so worried about the cost of the big truck on the road during an automatic call, maybe they ought to send one of them fancy dually pickups over to check it out. Or maybe the battalion chief vehicle could go look -see. But not respond---so glad i live in the notheast where Firefighters and ems still make housecalls!!
Calls are calls, period. That goes no matter who is going. What happens if the alarm is triggered, no answered the phone (that's because it was Grandma Betty who couldn't get to the phone in time), and there is an actual fire. What happens then? No matter what the call comes out at, even if it's an unknown situation, we have to respond. For us it's mandatory because if we don't at least pull up on scene and say "Hey, we were just checking to make sure everything was ok." or something of that nature, that call is marked as a non-response. Which isn't at all good for us.

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