Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

How fire department responds to call from ADT or other security monitoring system?

Lets say triggered smoke detector leads to call to fire department from monitoring company. How fire department respond to it, dispatches team to investigate? If there is no visible signs of fire from outside house, will they brake down door to make sure all clear and that’s its false alarm.

you will get a call from Adt and if they cant reach you you have a backup list with people who have a key they will let them in if there is no sign of a fire

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4 Responses to “How fire department responds to call from ADT or other security monitoring system?”

pickmefirstplz Says:
February 16th, 2010 at 3:23 pm

you will get a call from Adt and if they cant reach you you have a backup list with people who have a key they will let them in if there is no sign of a fire
References :
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MarkG Says:
February 16th, 2010 at 3:45 pm

Being a firefighter, we respond all the time to ADT calls for both smoke and CO detectors. We respond with all the fire equipment for smoke alarms and just the engine company for CO calls. We try to investigate from the outside if no one is home and then try to get a hold of a key holder. If we suspect something we will try to gain access.
References :

Southern1 Says:
February 16th, 2010 at 4:29 pm

When your smoke alarm goes off, it transmits a signal to ADT. ADT then will contact you on your premises telephone. If there is no answer, ADT notifies the fire department, then contacts keyholders to have someone meet the FD. The FD will then check out your house to see if there are any visible signs of a fire in your home. If they suspect something, sometimes they may force access to your home if a keyholder is not there to let them in. But it really depends on the fire department. Also you should keep in mind if you ever have any problem with your fire system, most fire departments and police departments will charge false alarm fines if they come out to your home and nothing is wrong. So just make sure if you do have any issues, that you contact your alarm monitoring company for assistance.
References :
Licensed alarm monitor professional.

James Says:
February 16th, 2010 at 5:01 pm

There is no way to be able to answer this question without knowing where you live. Dispatch centers and fire departments have a very wide range of procedures for these types of calls. For example, even in the same metro area, I am familiar with fire departments that dispatch and respond to an automatic alarm the same way that they do when a person calls 911 and advises their house is on fire as well as a department that prioritizes the call down and dispatches a single engine or truck company to respond (without lights and sirens) to see if anything is apparent. By the same token, there are departments that will not force entry unless fire or smoke are visible while I am aware of at least one department that will force entry if needed on every single alarm call.

The only way to know for sure how your department will handle this situation is to contact the department and ask them what their SOP on automatic alarms stipulates.
References :
Professional Emergency Manager and Firefighter for 15 years (in different parts of the United States)

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