False Alarms

As off campus malicious fire alarms increase, the Harrisonburg Fire Department looks to combat the trend with increased security and large rewards.

Lauren Pack / art director

While the number of false fire alarms pulled on campus has decreased in past semesters, the number of malicious fire alarms pulled off campus is still high.

A malicious fire alarm is when an alarm is pulled knowing there is no emergency, Captain Arthur Miller, deputy fire marshal of the Harrisonburg Fire Department, said.

Pulling a false alarm is dangerous because it puts firefighters at extra risk going to and from the call, and it also takes them away from other potential emergencies.

"This is more than a game; we are dead serious about it," Miller said. "We will enforce laws as strictly as we can."

Miller said there have been so many false alarms pulled in Ashby Crossing on Devon Lane that the fire department is working with the housing office to make it easier to catch persons who pull alarms there falsely. More than 35 malicious alarms were pulled during the fall semester of 2004 on Devon Lane alone. From August 2003 to November 2004, 161 malicious alarms were pulled in the same area.

Miller said Ashby Crossing will offer a $100 reward to anyone offering information that leads to an arrest and an additional $500 if the information leads to a conviction.

Crime Stoppers also will offer $50 rewards to anyone with information about people pulling false alarms at any location.

Miller said the fire department has installed methods to prevent people from pulling false fire alarms.

"We’ve marked all the fire alarms [in Ashby Crossing]," Miller said. One of the new prevention methods is called thief detection paste, a purple ink that gets on the hands of the individual who pulls the alarm.

The purple paste turns a distinctive color when it reacts with perspiration or water from attempts to wash off the dye.

"If somebody sees someone with purple hands, they can turn them in for a reward," Miller said.

The fire department also has been sending fire marshals to deter people from pulling a false alarm.

Most of the alarms pulled in off-campus locations occur between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. "False alarms are running our firefighters ragged," Miller said.

In addition to tiring out firefighters, false alarms cost the department extra money in the unnecessary running of equipment. Miller estimated that it costs $100 per day to run each fire station in Harrisonburg, and when a person who has pulled a false alarm has been caught, they are expected to reimburse the fire department for the money cost responding to the alarm.

"False fire alarms on campus have decreased dramatically," Miller said. He credited JMU Police with the decrease, saying that hidden cameras, thief detection paste and alarms that sound when people lift the glass cover to a fire alarm have stopped many false alarms.

"We don’t want to discourage people from pulling the fire alarm," Miller said, "but we do want people to be aware of what they are doing when they pull an alarm maliciously."

Miller said that anybody with information regarding a false alarm can call a 24-hour hotline at (540) 432-7703. Information can be given anonymously through the hotline as well.