Effects of False Alarm Calls

The occurrence of false alarm activations can have a negative impact on the community in many ways:

• Fatigue. All our firefighters are volunteers and multiple alarms are impactful on their time and private lives often leading to fatigue, especially when these calls happen late a night. 

• Complacency. Repeating false alarm calls to the same address can lead to complacency. This could have disastrous effects if there is an actual emergency. 

• Interference. Alarm calls are so numerous that MLFD is starting to experience alarm calls interfering with other emergency calls, thus delaying response to actual emergencies. 

• Risks. Residential alarms are often not required under the Ontario Fire Code, this means that fire departments can not require these systems to be maintained or certified to the same industry standards as a restaurant or hotel. That said, when a residential alarm does summon a response, risk management dictates that a full structure fire response be sent.