False Alarm Rate Cut By Removing Alarm Boxes
Several of the nation’s largest cities, particularly in the West, have recently removed their street alarm box systems rather than continue to cope with a staggering false alarm rate. It has long been common experience that legitimate fire alarms are almost always turned in by phone. Also, the direct voice contact discourages false alarms over the telephone.
Box removal appears to be meeting its goal. San Jose, Calif, (population 560,000) cut its false alarm rate in half the first year, as shown by the graph.
According to a fiscal 1974-75 survey, only 25 of San Jose’s 1537 street box alarms involved actual fires.
Said Chief John Gerhard, “Almost without exception, the same blaze was reported by telephone immediately before or after the box alarm.”
The fire department reviewed this situation with ISO which, according to Gerhard, “agreed that on our record the boxes appeared to be worthless.” No change in the city’s insurance rating was to be expected if all 414 of San Jose’s boxes were to be taken out.
This was done in mid-1976. Beside the false alarm reduction, with its increased safety for both fire fighters and civilians on the streets, reduced wear and tear on fire apparatus, and fuel savings, San Jose is realizing annual maintentance and test cost reduction of about $30,000. Also, the city saved a one-time cost of $100,000 that would have been needed during 1976 to tie the box system into the County Communications Center into which all city emergency wire or radio traffic was then being consolidated.
