By Khalida Sarwari
Soon residents in Saratoga will be able to swap out their outdated early warning fire reporting system for a new one as the city takes steps to making the process easier and more affordable.
Saratoga’s elected officials approved an ordinance on May 6 that updates a city code concerning early warning fire alarm systems. Vice Mayor Manny Cappello noted the changes allow residents flexibility they didn’t have before. Up until now, residents had access only to the alarm monitoring company that the Saratoga Fire District has contracted with; the changes allow residents the freedom of selecting their own monitoring company.
“There’s a lot of choice, and I think my sense is that our citizens that are affected by this will be very pleased with this change because of the additional options and choices that are made available to them,” said Cappello.
The changes proposed in the ordinance are removing the requirement that the Saratoga Fire District directly receive notification of an alarm activation; clarifying that all new and existing residential structures within the Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Area are required to have early warning alarm systems installed; referring directly to the current versions of the California building, residential and fire codes for the required components of early warning alarm systems; removing reference to separate fire districts; and removing the requirement that the homeowner pay an administrative fee to SFD to maintain early warning alarm systems.
According to Saratoga community development director Erwin Ordonez, the desire to take advantage of modern technology for alarm systems and allow homeowners additional choices were the main reasons behind the changes. The system was initially introduced by the fire district and city in the early 1980s and worked by providing early reporting of fires–through smoke detectors and alarms–directly to the fire station, enabling deployment of fire engines prior to being notified by phone. This system enabled firefighters to respond faster, and according to the fire department, helped reduce major fire damage in several incidents. After the fire station was demolished in 2003, notification of alarm activations were forwarded to county communications to dispatch fire engines.
The council will next revisit the ordinance on June 3 when it is expected to formally adopt it. The Saratoga Fire District board of commissioners is expected to consider changes to their own ordinance–which mirrors the city’s–on May 26.
Link: Residents will soon be allowed to obtain new fire reporting systems
