If you knew of all of the fire alarms that one off that one of my husband’s buildings, you would think there were a rash of arsons in the area. My husband’s company owns quite a few buildings and our town, but because he is the only employee that works in this area, he is the one that receives all of the alarm notifications from the security company. The company headquarters is located in another city, so all of the responsibility of the buildings and what happens to them after hours in our town is left on my husband’s shoulders. The number of calls we get for alarms is getting ridiculous.
The most common alarms that go off are the fire alarms. This particular building is exactly 1 block from where we live, so I can look out the window to see what is going on. When the fire alarms go off, the security company calls us to tell us they have noted by the fire company, and my husband must go there to meet them. There have been at least 20 false fire alarms within the past three months, and I know that his company is billed for each one of them. Even though his company knows the security system is flawed, they have yet to do anything about it.
It is not only fire alarms that go off though. We have also received many false alarms for burglary. Each time the police have come to the building and found nothing amiss. It seems that the security cameras and motion sensors are so sensitive that sometimes a speck of dust will set them off. There have been some instances when an employee has forgotten their security code when entering or leaving the building, but this does not explain all of the false fire alarms.
It’s almost a case of crying wolf. Though this building is made of brick and interior is made of stone and glass, there may be at one time a real fire. However, because of all of the false fire alarms we may not believe it when it actually happens. This is why I think it is a good thing that it is not up to my husband whether or not to call the fire company when an alarm goes off. The security company will dispatch the fire department each and every time no matter what. Though this may be a pain for the fire company, they are making a lot of money off the false alarms. Either way, until the fire alarms are recalibrated, we will continue to get the false alarms, and they usually come in the middle of the night.
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