UTC administrators attribute a decline in prank fire alarms at the university over the past four years to increased education and efforts to catch the culprits.
From 2004 to 2005, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga began addressing the problem of excessive false alarms through an education campaign, according to newspaper archives. The university then began looking into installing surveillance cameras near alarms, which since has taken place.
“We worked very closely with the city fire marshal’s office on this,” said Jim Pulliam, manager of UTC’s Office of Safety and Risk Management. “I will not say prank fire alarms have gone away, but 99 percent, yes, they have.”
Chattanooga fire officials classified 11 calls from UTC in 2006 as “malicious” or “mischievous,” records show. These are basically prank calls, according to fire officials.
But since then there have been no such calls, records show.
Most of the calls had taken place at South Campus Apartments, which were built in three phases from 2001 to 2004.
Spokesman Chuck Cantrell, a 25-year employee of UTC, said problems with false alarms didn’t start until the apartment complex’s construction.
“I really didn’t notice it so much before we had the South Campus Apartments,” he said.
Cantrell said UTC has been more proactive in false-alarm prevention at the apartments since the university took over ownership from an outside agency in early 2009. UTC has hired resident assistants and provided them with fire alarm training, he said.
The university also has explained potential disciplinary action from the university and local law enforcement, Cantrell noted.
Tennessee law states that being convicted of tripping a false alarm carries a minimum of a one-year jail sentence.
University officials said in 2005 that those caught also would be kicked out of school. Cantrell said he doesn’t believe discipline has been that extreme, but that some violators have received lesser punishments.
Students also are being shown the wasted time and resources responders use on false alarms, Cantrell said.
“While they may think it’s funny … it draws emergency responders away from potentially real emergencies,” he said.
A UTC fire alarm response team typically consists of six fire engines and about 24 firefighters, Chattanooga Fire Marshal James Whitmire said. While he didn’t know an exact cost associated with responses, Whitmire did say, “I’m sure it’s pretty expensive.”
Like Cantrell, he said distributing information on alarms has “helped considerably” in prank-alarm prevention.
“I think the biggest thing is the education of the students,” he said. “[UTC has] kind of taken the ball and ran with it as far as [education] goes.”