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Kennewick council staff to draft ordinance after presentation on reducing nuisance fire-alarm responses
Summary
At a March 25 Kennewick City Council workshop, fire officials proposed amending Kennewick Municipal Code 9.48 to address repeated commercial fire-alarm activations; council asked staff to return with an ordinance, cost estimates and an implementation plan.
Kennewick City Council workshop — Fire prevention officials on March 25 urged the council to approve an amendment to Kennewick Municipal Code (KMC) 9.48 to reduce repeated, unnecessary commercial fire-alarm responses that tie up emergency resources.
Deputy Fire Marshal Ethan Bishop said the proposal would align a nuisance-fire-alarm policy with existing KMC 9.48 procedures so the city can issue notices, track repeat activations and, after several warnings, assess civil penalties to encourage corrective maintenance. “The purpose of this proposed amendment to KMC 9.48 is in an effort to reduce the number of unnecessary responses to recurrent fire alarms deemed as a nuisance alarm,” Bishop said.
The change is intended to reduce unnecessary dispatches that, officials said, limit availability for critical emergencies and can desensitize building occupants to alarms. Bishop told the council that Kennewick Fire Department data for 2024 show 237 unintentional or system-malfunction commercial fire-alarm responses; 16 addresses generated four or more activations, and staff estimated nine addresses…
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