Commercial property owners in Kennewick may want to be sure their fire alarms are properly set up and working today to avoid a potential fine from the city going forward. 

An ordinance approved by the Kennewick City Council this spring will allow the city to penalize business owners when the city’s firefighters are required to respond to four or more false fire alarms at the same location within a rolling 180-day period.  

Business owners face a $500 fine for the initial violation of the ordinance, $1,000 for the second and $1,500 for all subsequent violations. 

Kennewick firefighters responded to 237 unintentional commercial fire alarms in 2024, three quarters of them due to system malfunctions, according to the Kennewick Fire Department. Of those, 16 addresses had four or more unintentional activations and fire officials said nine would qualify for penalties under the code amendment. 

“The purpose of this change is not to generate revenue, but to ensure fire alarm systems are properly used and maintained,” the city said in a release.