Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
An unusual case between a town and a local college has resulted in an unusual settlement, but one that hopefully will end some of the frustration for a local fire department.
The Paul Smiths-Gabriels Volunteer Fire Department in the town of Brighton, New York, provides coverage the Paul Smith’s College. Like many colleges, the school has a problem with… how shall we say… unnecessary alarms.
Between April 8, 2009 and November 24, 2009 the college had 45 alarms categorized as unnecessary. The unnecessary alarm problem became so bad that volunteer firefighters would not turn out for alarms at the school. As a result, the Town of Brighton implement an ordinance that imposes a charge on building owners that have more than three avoidable alarms in a year. The owner is charged $250 per incident up to 25 incidents, and $500 per incident thereafter.
In 2010 the Town filed suit in New York Supreme Court for Franklin County against Paul Smith’s College seeking to recoup $11,000 in charges for unnecessary alarms. According to the Press-Republican, the case has finally been settled with the college agreeing to hire a trained fire-safety officer and staff a 24-hour dispatch center to provide first response to alarms on campus.
The parties are hopeful that the new arrangement will reduce the burden on the PSGVFD.
Director of campus safety and emergency management Philip Fiacco was quoted in a press release as saying “By improving our ability to respond to on-campus fire alarms, we’ll be able to investigate incidents within a matter of minutes, providing an extra layer of safety and protection to the campus community.”
PSGVFD Fire Chief Roger Smith was quoted as saying “I am very happy that the college and town have come to an agreement to the avoidable-alarm-law issues.”
