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By Jaryn Vecchio

False Alarms

‘Malicious’ false alarms continuing to be problem for P.A. fire department

Nov 22, 2022 | 12:42 PM

False alarms continue to be an issue for the Prince Albert Fire Department (PAFD), but the ones caused on purpose are becoming really frustrating.

Since the start of November, there have been six potential cases where pull stations were pulled maliciously, according to the PAFD.

Fire Chief Kris Olsen told paNOW every time they respond to a false alarm there’s a risk that a real emergency could be happening at the same time.

“That takes time, and it takes our crews away from the station,” he said. “We have had to track back to get specialized equipment in the past whether that’s for a false alarm call or another emergency response.”

While some might think six cases aren’t that bad, the department has actually seen a substantial increase in all forms of false alarms. Earlier this summer, they were responding to around four calls a day when they previously averaged one.

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All of the malicious calls came from buildings on the same street, 28 Street. Most of the buildings were in the east end, while one was in the west end.

Ethan Peterson, who lives in one of these buildings, believes there’s going to be a boy-who-cried-wolf situation if this continues.

“Whenever it gets pulled, we’re not even worried there’s a fire,” he said. “What if there was actually a fire one of these times.”

He explained these false alarms have happened pretty consistently since he and his family moved into their apartment over a year ago.

His hope is that the person or persons who keep doing it are eventually caught. However, it may be a hard task.

“More often than not, there’s no one there on the scene and no evidence or information on who pulled the alarm,” said Olsen.

He noted if they do catch the person, instead of fining them they’d contact P.A. police to deal with the situation.

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Jaryn.Vecchio@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow