BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Starke is raising the penalty on false alarms to encourage property owners — mostly businesses — to repair their systems.
Chief Administrative Officer Jimmy Crosby said the current “pain is not sufficient to create the gain” when introducing the ordinance, which was approved on first reading March 4.
Crosby said staff was told to share ideas that would make their jobs easier, and this was Fire Chief Jason Clemons’ first request.
Raising the financial penalty for repeated false fire alarms to get the attention of property owners was one reason to update the city’s rules. Clemons said the other was to reassign enforcement powers away from the police department, which no longer exists. The ordinance assigns responsibility to the chief administrative officer.
Clemons’ recommendations were based on his survey of other municipalities, although his proposed fines were more conservative.
The ordinance grants four false alarms per calendar year without penalty. That’s enough time for the problem to be identified and corrected.
Each false alarm after the fourth will result in a fine. The fines start at $250 per incident. After the ninth incident, the fine increases to $500 for each false alarm.
Clemons gave examples for why this in necessary, saying there was one property Starke Fire Department responded to 18 times last year — each time a false alarm due to a faulty detector in their HVAC system.
“They know about it. They won’t fix it. So, if we sting them a little bit, give them some motivation to maintain and repair their systems appropriately — you know, it’s not that often that we respond to those type calls and then have a delayed response to a real emergency, but it does happen,” he said.
He added that a lot of the calls are from nursing facilities or apartment complexes that are required to have functional alarm systems for the safety of the residents. If something is not working, it needs to be repaired.
“Hopefully this will be some incentive or motivation or deterrence for those,” Clemons said.
According to the fire chief, false alarms at private homes are rare. The top five commercial offenders on his list, however, were responsible for 49 false alarm responses from the fire department in 2024. He calculated the cost of those responses to be $11,000.
Commissioner Bob Milner said he agreed with Clemons that — just like with code enforcement — the fines don’t exist to create revenue but to demand compliance. At the same time, he wanted to make sure facilities like nursing homes wouldn’t be penalized when their elderly residents pull the alarm. Clemons agreed that would not qualify as a malfunctioning alarm. He also mentioned alarms triggered during a storm being an exception.
“So, this is for, like Mr. Milner said, for noncompliant folks that just aren’t going to do the right thing. They’re just not doing the right thing and maintaining their systems,” Commissioner Janice Mortimer said.
Based on an observation from Mayor Andy Redding, the ordinance will be amended before final approval to remove language about disconnecting systems for noncompliance because, as Clemons had said, some facilities are required to have fire alarm systems.
Sheriff Gordon Smith — who plans on getting the county’s ordinance updated as well — also interjected if the problem is with a facility required to maintain a functional fire alarm system, their noncompliance could be reported to the state.
Crosby said that problem should be resolved once an owner is being charged $500 per false alarm.
“We’ll run the truck for $500. We’re not that busy,” Crosby said.
Per the ordinance, Crosby or his designee will keep a record of every alarm response and whether it was valid. Property owners will be notified of each false alarm reported. This will serve as notice that after four false alarm responses, the property owner will be fined for every subsequent false alarm response.
The ordinance does not limit false alarm responses to fire department responses. It states response from any public safety agency. It does include an appeals process through the chief administrative officer, who would examine the case and make the final decision.
Fees collected will be used for enforcement of the ordinance, with any remaining revenue going to the fire department.
