The safety of the residents of Milton and its firefighters is the first priority for the Milton Fire Department. Whenever there is an emergency requiring the Fire Department, our crews will be there to assist. At the same time, the Fire Department is working to educate businesses and citizens on ways to reduce non-emergency calls so crews can be available to respond to events where emergency help is truly needed.
If a fire alarm is activated in your home or building, it is always recommended that someone call 9-1-1. Until the cause of the alarm activation can be clearly determined, the Fire Department should be notified to ensure the safety of everyone in your home or building.
Many homes in Milton have smoke alarm systems monitored by an alarm monitoring service. In the event of a fire in their home, whether anyone is home or not, residents who have alarm monitoring can be assured in cases of fire at their home, whether they are there or not, that it will be detected and the Fire Department sent without delay. A smoke alarm system with a monitoring service can often give the owner a considerable savings on property fire insurance rates. Newer systems now monitor for carbon monoxide and combustible gas. In addition, with the advance of technology these systems can even report the type of device that was activated and the specific location in the house as well. The homeowner pays a monthly monitoring fee to the alarm service company. Once a device detects an alarm condition, the system automatically transmits the alarm to the central monitoring station via a telephone line. The monitoring station operator contacts the Milton Fire Department to report the alarm. The Fire Department in turn dispatches or sends out the appropriate staffing in accordance with pre-planned response protocols.
Residential False Alarm Pamphlet
An automatic fire alarm system is designed to detect the unwanted presence of fire by monitoring environmental changes associated with combustion. In general, a fire alarm system is either classified as automatic, manually activated, or both. Automatic fire alarm systems can be used to notify people to evacuate in the event of a fire or other emergency, to summon emergency services, and to prepare the structure and associated systems to control the spread of fire and smoke.
The Ontario Fire Code regulates maintenance of fire alarm systems and requires regular testing and maintenance of all devices.
There are somewhere between 200 and 250 calls for residential or commercial false alarms each year. Responding to these types of false alarms, especially if they could have been preventedcan be costly to the Town. More important is the undue risk firefighters are exposed to responding to these alarms. Unless we know differently, the response to a fire alarm at a house or business is as if there is a fire. With the growing number of new homes and businesses in the past 10 years, there has been a very large increase in the number of alarm investigations.
The Town of Milton has a composite Fire Department comprised of both full and part time staff. Once a call is received by our Communications Center the call is put out for crews to respond. This means that our full-time on-shift staff responds immediately and part-time staff leave their homes or employment responding to the station to staff other apparatus. Depending on the location of the alarm, the Department could respond with four to 10 apparatus and sixteen 16 to 30 firefighters. Again, the response to a residential or commercial alarm activation is as if there is a fire.
The goal of the By-law is to reduce the number of false alarms to which fire crews respond each year. Fewer alarms reduce the risk to businesses, citizens and firefighters by lessening the number of responding vehicles on the road and improving available response for other emergency calls. In addition, fewer false alarms to a building or apartment mean fewer disruptions to your business and for residents.
Under the by-law, the Fire Department will not charge for the first two responses to a preventable false alarm in a calendar year. Fees will be assessed for three or more preventable alarms in a calendar year. The cost can be quite substantial as the fee is set at $350 per truck response.
The safety of citizens is the primary concern of the Fire Department. If someone believes there is a fire or a fire alarm is activated, call 9-1-1 immediately. No fees will be assessed if a fire was or is in progress.
The Fire Department encourages you to examine ways in which you can prevent future false alarms from occurring:
For more information on this topic, please use our Feedback form to submit comments or inquiries to: 'fireservices'
Phone: 905-878-9251 or toll free 1 800-418-5494
Fax: 905 878-5914