By GREGG WYCHERLEY
The Fire Service wants to double the penalty for false alarms from commercial buildings as part of a "zero tolerance" campaign.
Owners of commercial buildings who repeatedly cause false alarms at present face a charge of up to $500, which the service wants doubled to $1000.
Fire Service spokesman Cliff Mears said the rate of false alarms per 100 buildings had not fallen much since the charge was introduced in 1990.
"Some people treat $500 as petty cash - it's signed off without any thought being given to where the money's going."
He said almost half of false alarms came from fire alarm systems - and were caused by either component failure or environmental factors such as cooking smoke or dust.
Mr Mears said the campaign would target commercial building owners who repeatedly caused false alarms.
"We find that about half of the false alarms come from only 6.5 per cent of buildings," he said.
"This campaign will target those buildings."
He said many false alarms came from new buildings where the developer had installed a cheap fire alarm system.
"The systems being installed meet national standards, but New Zealand standards are not exactly cutting edge, which is another area we need to address."
The national director of the Property Council, John Daken, said commercial property owners supported the Fire Service campaign.
"The principle is to impose some sort of user-pays in respect of false alarms and we don't have a problem with that."
The council would distribute to its members a Fire Service pamphlet outlining ways to cut down the numbers of false alarms.
The plan being considered by the Fire Service still needs Government approval, but is expected to take effect in about three months.
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