Hot Topic: Knox Box Ordinance

Does your township/municipality currently have a Knox Box Ordinance?

If so, how does it seem to be working for your department?

If not, why do you not have one? Would you like to see one put into place?

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Permalink Reply by Bob Callahan on April 10, 2011 at 12:00pm

My current department does not have a Knox Box ordinance as we have very few fire alarms in our district and alarm trips represent only about .5% of our responses. In addition, in at least 90% of those responses, the businesses are open and access is not an issue.

My past department was an all-volunteer suburban department with several large multi-story hotels and office buildings as well as a fair number of large warehouses and other commercial properties where fire alarms did represent a fairly large portion of our run volume. many of these trips did come after hours and often we had to keep a company on-scene for up to an hour waiting on a keyholder.

As a response to this we had an ordiance adopted in the mid-90's to require a Knox Box on all commercial properties with an alarm that did not have 24-hour access, which exempted hotels and other 24/7/365 operations such as convenience stores.

Initially there was opposition from businesses, but after we meet with them and explained the benefits, there were less problems. When i left the department in 2002, 95% of the problems had been resolved and installation of Knox Box became an essential element in every new commercial building constructed.