Last year, the city of Oneonta Fire Department responded to 3,654 calls, with 408 classified as false alarms — a rate of 11%.
It’s a problem that Fire Chief Brian Knapp, Code Enforcement Officer Steve Yerly and other city leaders have been trying to address in an effort to curb spending city resources on unnecessary responses that divert responders from real emergencies.
Knapp spoke to the city of Oneonta’s Legislative Committee Monday, Feb. 10. Knapp initially raised this issue with the committee a year ago.
The meeting was focused on reviewing the existing city code on unnecessary fire alarms and whether to implement a $350 nuisance alarm fee to recover costs and encourage property owners to maintain their fire alarms.
Knapp presented two cost breakdowns for a false alarm, including the personnel, equipment and administrative costs per response.
The first total cost per incident came to $351.47 per call, which aligns with the proposed $350 fee. The second amount came to $411.47 and factored in hidden costs that reflect the full cost of firefighter wages, benefits, retirement contributions and overtime.
Using 2024’s number of false alarms, the estimated revenue from the $350 would have been $142,800 — if everyone paid up — but Knapp and Yerly said the goal is not to generate revenue, but through prevention and education encourage compliance and reduce the number of nuisance alarms.
The fire captain on duty has the discretion to decide whether a fire alarm was unnecessary or legitimate.
Knapp and Yerly spoke about the challenges with multiple properties triggering alarms and the need for better communication from property owners, especially during construction. A significant number of these incidents were at SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College, Yerly said.
“There’s times when they’re literally working on the fire alarm panel and they didn’t notify the fire department, and it’s triggering a false alarm,” Yerly said. “Those are in our reports, and I provided those to both colleges. It’s not just their student body doing weird stuff, like putting stuffed animals in the microwave.”
Len Carson, R-Fifth Ward, asked about the typical number of false alarms before last year, and Knapp said that the reporting system only goes back to 2021. Carson said that he would like to know the number of properties affected and the administrative time spent on these incidents, as well as the definition of an unnecessary alarm.
The meeting concluded with plans to reconvene for further discussion Feb. 25.