UNNECESSARY FIRE ALARMS

Codified Ordinances of Cleveland pt. THREE, pt. IIID, tit. XI, ch. 395

in effect

Codified Ordinances of Cleveland § 395.01 Definitions

§ 395.01 Definitions As used in this chapter, the following words and phrases shall have the following meanings: (a) “Auxiliary protective signaling system” means a connection to the municipal fire alarm system to transmit an alarm of fire to the Division of Fire, which can be either a radio box or a master box. (b) “Central station operating company” means a company equipped to receive a fire alarm signal from each of its customers and which then transmits to the Division of Fire the location of any such alarm the central station operating company receives. (c) “Division of Fire” means the Division of Fire in the Department of Public Safety of the City of Cleveland. (d) “Fire alarm system” or “alarm system” means any heat-activated, smoke-activated, flame energy- activated or other such automatic device or devices capable of transmitting a fire alarm signal to a central supervising station of a proprietary protective signaling system, a central station operating company, or directly to the Division of Fire by means of a master box or radio box. (e) “Fire Chief” means the Chief of the Division of Fire of the City of Cleveland. (f) “Master box” means a municipal fire alarm box which is activated either by the internal building fire alarm system or manually. It sends an alarm signal directly to the Division of Fire. (g) “Person” means an individual, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company or business of any kind. (h) “Proprietary protective signaling system” means an installation of a protective signaling system that serves a building or contiguous and/or noncontiguous properties, whether or not under common ownership, from a central supervising station serving the protected property or properties and having personnel in attendance, or any other system that alerts personnel or automatically transmits an alarm to the Division of Fire. (i) “Protective signaling system” means electrically operated circuits, instruments, and devices, together with the necessary electrical energy, designed to transmit alarm, supervisory, and trouble signals necessary for the protection of life and property. (j) “Radio box” means a radio transmitter which is activated either by the internal building fire alarm system or manually. It sends an alarm signal directly to the Division of Fire. (k) “Unnecessary alarm” means the activation of a fire alarm system which results in the Division of Fire being summoned to the location served by the alarm system when there is no fire or fire-related emergency occurring, nor is there any indication, as determined by the Division of Fire, that a fire or fire-related emergency has occurred, as reported by the alarm. The activation of a fire alarm system shall be rebuttably presumed to be an “unnecessary alarm” if, after investigation, the Division of Fire finds no indication that a fire or fire-related emergency occurred. “Unnecessary alarm” shall not include a scheduled or controlled test of the fire alarm system, provided that the Division of Fire’s dispatch center has been notified immediately prior to each test, nor shall “unnecessary alarm” include a deliberate false alarm as proscribed by Section 605.07 of these Codified Ordinances, the burden of proof for these exceptions being upon the person(s) responsible for the alarm system. (Ord. No. 1426-92. Passed 7-22-92, eff. 7-31-92) Note: Pursuant to Section 2 of Ord. No. 1426-92, Section 395.01 shall take effect on August 1, 1992.

Codified Ordinances of Cleveland § 395.02 Unnecessary Alarms; Charges

§ 395.02 Unnecessary Alarms; Charges (a) Upon the occurrence of a second unnecessary alarm at a particular location in a given calendar year, the Fire Chief shall cause a letter to be sent via regular U.S. mail to the alarm system location stating that the person(s) responsible for the alarm system as identified in division (c) may be invoiced under the authority of this section for reimbursement of a portion of the costs of responding to the third and any subsequent unnecessary alarm. (b) If more than two (2) unnecessary alarms occur at a particular location in a given calendar year, then the Fire Chief shall invoice the person(s) responsible for the alarm system as identified in division (c) of this section in the sum of one hundred thirty dollars ($130.00) for reimbursement of a portion of the costs of responding to the third and any subsequent unnecessary alarm. The charges shall be due and payable on receipt of an invoice, except that the charges shall be suspended pending the outcome of any hearing conducted under Section 395.03, or any appeal conducted under Section 395.04. (c) As used in this section and division (k) of Section 395.01, the “person(s) responsible for the alarm system” means each owner and leaseholder, if any, of the property or properties served by the alarm system, and the person(s) shall be jointly and severally liable for the charges assessed under this section. (d) As used in this section, a “particular location” means a property or a group of contiguous or noncontiguous properties, whether or not under common ownership, which are under a common street address, both as to house or building number and street name. (Ord. No. 12-10. Passed 5-10-10, eff. 5-20-10)

Codified Ordinances of Cleveland § 395.03 Hearings

§ 395.03 Hearings Any person who has been invoiced pursuant to Section 395.02 may request, in writing, within thirty (30) days of the date of invoice, a hearing by the Fire Chief or his or her designee for the purpose of presenting evidence that an unnecessary alarm did not occur, or that the person invoiced is not an owner or leaseholder of the property or properties served by the alarm system from which the unnecessary alarm originated. Upon the establishment by the Division of Fire of a prima facie case that an unnecessary alarm has occurred at a given street address, the burden of proof shall shift to the person who requested the hearing. An incident report indicating that the Division of Fire responded to the alarm and found no indication that a fire or fire-related emergency occurred shall be sufficient to establish a prima facie case that an unnecessary alarm has occurred at the street address identified in the incident report. The rules of evidence applicable to courts of law shall not be strictly applied. If the Fire Chief or his or her designee determines, by a preponderance of the evidence, that an unnecessary alarm did not occur, or that the person invoiced pursuant to Section 395.02 is not an owner or leaseholder of the property or properties served by the alarm system, then the charges shall be voided, otherwise the charges shall be due and payable. (Ord. No. 1426-92. Passed 7-22-92, eff. 7-31-92)

Codified Ordinances of Cleveland § 395.04 Appeals

§ 395.04 Appeals Any person subject to an adverse finding by the Fire Chief or his or her designee pursuant to Section 395.03 may appeal the finding to the Board of Building Standards and Building Appeals. The notice of appeal shall be in writing and shall be filed with the Board of Building Standards and Building Appeals within ten (10) days of the finding of the Fire Chief or his or her designee. The Board shall approve, modify or annul the finding from which the appeal is taken. (Ord. No. 1583-90. Passed 4-8-91, eff. 4-15-91)

Codified Ordinances of Cleveland § 395.05 Annual Report

§ 395.05 Annual Report The Director of Public Safety shall file a report with the Clerk of Council by the 15th of February each year, containing the number of unnecessary fire alarms that occurred and the amount of monies that were reimbursed to the City pursuant to Section 395.02 in the previous calendar year. (Ord. No. 905-18. Passed 8-15-18, eff. 8-17-18)

Codified Ordinances of Cleveland § 395.06 Registration of Alarm System Users; Fee

§ 395.06 Registration of Alarm System Users; Fee (a) Each owner or leaseholder of a property or properties served by an alarm system user shall register with the Commissioner of Assessments and Licenses using forms designated by the Commissioner for this purpose, and shall provide the name of the owner or leaseholder, the location of the premises on which the alarm system is in operation, and other information as the Commissioner shall require. (b) Each owner or leaseholder of a property or properties served by an alarm system on whose premises an alarm system is in operation on the effective date of this section shall initially register within ninety (90) days of the effective date of the section. Each owner or leaseholder on whose premises an alarm system is placed in operation after the effective date of this section shall initially register not later than the date on which the system is placed in operation. (c) After the initial registration required by division (b) of this section, such registrations shall be issued as of January 1, and shall expire on December 31, next succeeding. Each registered owner or leaseholder shall re-register each year before January 1. The period from July 1, 2018 through December 31, 2018 shall apply to the 2019 calendar year registration. (d) Each owner or leaseholder shall pay a fee of twenty-five dollars ($25.00) for each registration or re-registration required by this section. (e) No person shall fail to register or re-register as required by this section. (f) The registration or re-registration fee in division (d) above shall be waived for any calendar year in which an owner or leaseholder has paid either the fire alarm permit fee required by Section 381.05 or the police alarm registration or re-registration fee required by Section 670A.03. (Ord. No. 905-18. Passed 8-15-18, eff. 8-17-18)

Source: City of Cleveland, Ohio, Codified Ordinances and City Charter (American Legal Publishing, codelibrary.amlegal.com)URL: https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/cleveland/latest/cleveland_oh/0-0-0-18998Fetched: 11/1/2026