False fire alarms becoming a problem
By: Meredith Hillgartner
Updated: October 11, 2012
"Well usually when the fire alarm goes off your never happy," Rudinzski said.
We have all heard the story about the boy who cried wolf.
But what happens when that false warning is your fire alarm going off?
That is what the residents of the Suites apartments dealt with Tuesday morning around 7 am.
Trevor Rudzinski says it does not matter what kind of an alarm is going off, he does not want to get out of bed.
"In the case of it going off early in the morning," Rudzinski said. "You almost just don't care. You almost just want to not pay attention and just go back to bed."
But false alarms are not only a problem for sleepy students but for the local fire departments.
Deputy Fire Marshal Robert Loveless said false alarms only account for about six percent of the calls they take each year.
These calls not only take up time but they also come as a big cost to the city-but not in the terms of money.
"The bigger cost than that is that vehicle is no longer able to respond to a true emergency," Loveless said.
Loveless said it is hard to put blame on the cause of all the fire alarms but it usually boils down to human error.
"That's just kind of the nature," Loveless said. "People just don't think. They don't mean to call out a fire truck, but we can't take that chance."
And Loveless might have a point-Rudzinski said his own roommates might have been the reason their alarms went off last year.
"I think last year we had it go off a couple of times in our apartment because my roommates were being silly and making bad choices," Rudzinski said.
