Anyone link a fire alarm to the fire department WITHOUT going through a 3rd party?

[dean]

Rather not pay the $25 a month for 'monitoring' of my house.

Thanks,

Dean

[trader4]

Check misc.consumers.house group. There is a current thread there about monitoring, including some links to places that do it for $10 a mth.

[Andy Simms]

Most fire departments won't allow this kind of setup. If there's a third party (like a security alarm company) involved, the third party will call your home and verify that it's not a false alarm before calling the fire department.

If no monitoring company is involved, the fire department would be forced to respond to false alarms, like when you burn toast and trigger your smoke alarm. It's a total waste of tax dollars if they have to respond to that kind of thing.

[Dave Balderstone]

Two of my neighbors are firefighters and beyond being friends with them I have way too much respect for people who choose to save lives as their vocation to mickey mouse any kind of communication or emergency call system.

Call your fire department and ask them how to connect to them legitimately. It may well be possible, but asking on a world-wide usenet forum is NOT the way to find out. Your LOCAL fire department is going to comprise your response team. Talk to them.

Remember. These are the people running INTO the burning building you're running OUT OF. Deal with them with respect and awe.

djb

[Amun]

They used to have auto dialers that you could buy that dialed the fire dept, and played a recorded message but they are outlawed in many areas due to the false alarms. Even if not outright illegal many fire departments just ignore the recorded messages, or come out and fine you for the call if it's false.

If you have family, or a neighbor the machine can call them and then they can phone the call in. But if it's a false alarm, .....they can be fined.

Flashing lights and sirens on your house may get a neighbor to pick up a phone, but again too many false alarms, and even this gets ignored.

(ever heard a car alarm go off when the owner forgets to turn it off and opens a door? look and see how many people even care)

The monitoring may be a bargain in comparison to possible fines, and worth the sleep you may lose if you don't have it

AMUN

[Tim Fischer]

Illegal in most localities.

Check out

-- $9/month full monitoring. I'm probably going to switch.

-Tim

[Edwin Pawlowski]

We have our factory and warehouse direct, but I don't know of any residential setups like that today. Check with your local fire department first. They will be the one deciding what you can and cannot do.

[HorneTD]

Respect yes. Awe NO!

[Goedjn]

Yeah, I keep wondering if there's anything like a DNR order you can put on a house, just tell the fire department to let the damn thing burn. I can't do that for mine, because the building is only 11 feet from the next house, and it would fall over and squish it, but if I had decent clearance, that would be the right solution for my house...

[Brad Bruce]

Believe me! The FD knows when a building isn't worth the risk of saving. If everyone is out, they will do what is safest for them.

[BocesLib]

why not just have it dial your cell phone. As long as you play the inbetween guy then there is no charge :)

[BocesLib]

Well there ARE drawbacks, but what's the basic point? You just want to know what's going on at home.

If you REALLY spend the cash, you can get a webbased security system.

you can view your home over the internet and get updates sent to you all sorts of different ways... Email, pages etc.

[dean]

That might not be a bad idea. I'm only really interested in the fire part, not the burglary side. I can afford to be burgled, but having the house burn down because of an electrical fault or a mouse chewing wires, that would be a real downer.

Anyway, I work 5 minutes away from my house, so if it is a burglar, they better be f****ng quick about it before I turn up!

Thanks!

Dean

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Sure, considering the reliability of cell phones when you travel that would work perfectly. How'd you like to find a "Missed call" when you leave a 3 hour meeting?