REDUCE AUTOMATIC FALSE ALARMS:  PROTECT OUR FIRST RESPONDERS…

The Indian River Volunteer Fire Company desires to enhance awareness with automatic fire alarms (AFAs) in hopes of reducing the quantity of incident alerts for both residential and commercial structures.  Our incident response statistics have indicated 40% of emergency incident alerts in the Indian River Fire District are from automatic fire alarms:

• Year 2024 – AFA Incidents – 223

• Year 2025 – AFA Incidents – 242

Unwanted automatic fire alarms, also known as nuisance alarms, are alarms that activate without a real fire or potential fire hazard. These alarms can be caused by various factors, including:

• Cooking fumes: Such as burnt toast or other cooking odors.

• Steam: From appliances or hot showers.

• System malfunctions: Including improper maintenance or cleaning of the alarm system.

• Changing of Batteries without notification to alarm company or cancellation of alarm.

• Contractors working at facility or structure location.

• Nuisance conditions: Non-hazardous conditions that trigger the alarm system.

These alarms can significantly impact fire departments by increasing the workload and reducing the effectiveness of their response to actual fire events. Fire departments often face challenges in distinguishing between real alarms and nuisance alarms, which can lead to unnecessary responses and resources being wasted.

It is estimated that the financial expenses associated with these incident responses for Indian River would be approximately $421,855.79 in Calendar Year 2024 and $457,798.66 in Calendar Year 2025 based upon average financial data recently published by the FACETS Financial Review and Analysis recently conducted on behalf of all fire companies in Sussex County - sussexcountyde.gov/sites/default/files/PDFs/Sussex_FireService_FinancialHealth_6.9.25.pdf

When an automatic fire alarm triggers an emergency dispatch, your local volunteer firefighters drop everything to respond. While always ready to help, "false" triggers—like cooking smoke, changing of batteries without notification, dust or steam—strain our resources.

How You Can Help:

• Maintain Your System: Replace units every 10 years and vacuum dust from sensors annually.

• Be Mindful of Steam: Ensure bathroom fans are running to prevent shower steam from triggering hallway detectors.

• Manage Your Monitoring: Keep your alarm company's number in your phone. If you have a known false alarm, call them immediately to cancel or prevent the fire company dispatch.

• Contractors: If you have workers in your home, ensure they are aware of detector locations to avoid accidental triggers from dust or chemicals.

By combining strategic system design, regular maintenance, proper monitoring, occupant education, and risk-based response policies, fire departments and building managers can significantly reduce unwanted or nuisance fire alarms. This improves firefighter safety, operational efficiency, and occupant trust in alarm systems while maintaining compliance with relevant codes and standards.

The Indian River Volunteer Fire Company asks for your assistance with this initiative to reduce the quantity of automatic fire alarms within our fire district.

Your assistance needed!  Can you HELP us?