Fire Alarms Can be Costly

A city of Toronto by-law used to allow two nuisance false alarms over each two-month period for free and charged the owner for every false alarm after the first two. This by-law has been amended and it is now ONE free false alarm every two months.

How much do they charge?

Every truck the fire department sends costs $350 and they normally send 3 trucks at a time for a building of the size of May Tower II. Thus, if the alarm sounds more than once in a two-month period from now on, we will be paying $1,050 every time we get a visit from the fire trucks.

1 VISIT = 3 FIRE TRUCKS = $ 1, 050

How to Avoid False Fire Alarms

If any smoke detector located in the halls of the building starts beeping the condo corporation might be charged more than a thousand dollars.

I was talking to one of the repair people and he explained the following regarding the fire alarms: The smoke detectors inside your unit will only trigger the alarm inside your unit when activated. This will not result in an automatic call to the fire department.

If, however, the smoke from your unit is released into the hall it might activate the smoke detector in the hall which results in a global alarm (for the whole building) and an automatic call to the fire department.

Thus, burning your meal could become a $1,050 bill for the whole building. Wouldn't you rather see this money used for improvements to our building? Improvements which will enhance the property and raise the profile of your investment?

If you have smoke in your unit please clear it using the kitchen range and opening your windows. Do not vent the smoke into the hall. Do not tamper with your in-suite smoke detectors; it could cost you more than money. They are there for safety reasons and it's the law.