The Chico Fire Department will soon begin charging for repeated false fire alarms after the City Council voted in favor of amending city code to address the issue Tuesday.
The department has received more than 1,400 calls in two years that turned out to be false fire alarms, accounting for more than 5 percent of total calls received in 2016 and 2017. Some of those calls come from repeat offenders, including Chico State University, with the department responding to as many as 50 false alarms at one property.
Fire Chief Steve Standridge asked Tuesday that the council consider amending city code to reduce the wasted expenses, time and resources associated with such calls, and adopt a policy that allows the city to collect fees of $100-$200 for repeated false fire alarms the same way it does for false security alarms.