READING, Pa. – The Reading Fire Department is looking to increase penalties for false alarms.
Fire officials say they’ve seen an uptick in needless alarm calls, which are calls for alarms set off by things like construction dust, hairspray, and people smoking indoors.
They are asking the City Council to increase the false alarm violation fee to 400-dollars per occurrence.
They say they had 5 calls for needless alarms just last Friday.
“For us to be running 2 million, 2.5 million dollars worth of fire apparatus to these calls from something that’s preventable, it’s kind of reached an epic level at this point and time, so we decided that there’s a need to adjust it,” says Reading Fire Marshall Jeremy Searfoss.
Officials say the fee has not been adjusted in nearly 20 years.
The change will be proposed at tonight’s city council meeting and will be voted on at a later date.