A note for building staff about contacting the Fire Department during a fire alarm
Any fire alarm should be treated as a real emergency and needs to be reported to the Fire Department, even if a central station monitoring company provides service to the building. One staff member should be assigned the responsibility of calling 9-1-1 from a safe location whenever the building alarm activates or a fire is reported. The caller should be prepared to provide information as it is requested by the dispatcher and should be able to stay on the telephone until instructed to hang up. A staff member should also be ready to meet the Fire Department on the address side of the building.
Any information regarding the source of the fire alarm should be reported in a call to 9-1-1 as soon as possible. If building staff determine that a fire alarm is false prior to the Fire Department's arrival, they should call 9-1-1 and relay the information to the dispatcher. The dispatcher will notify the responding fire companies that a false alarm has been reported. One fire company will arrive to verify that the alarm is false. The Seattle Fire Department will investigate all fire alarms. The building alarm may not be silenced without permission of the Fire Department or dispatcher.
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