Owners of commercial buildings in Kennewick could end up paying hundreds of dollars in penalties if their fire alarms go off frequently without there being a need for firefighters to respond.

The Kennewick City Council recently held a workshop where the Kennewick Fire Department, in collaboration with the city attorney, asked to amend city code to include frequently recurring commercial fire alarm system activations as nuisances.

If adopted, the proposed amendment would give property owners three warnings per six-month period before they’d have to pay a penalty. That initial penalty cost would be $500, with the next being $1,000, and the third and all subsequent penalties being $1,500 each during that six-month period.

“The objective of this change is not to generate money for the city, but rather to ensure the fire alarm systems are properly used and maintained,” according to a memo from fire officials to the council.

Most commercial buildings in the state are required to have fire alarms per state fire codes. Fire officials said in their presentation that the primary purpose of fire alarms is to provide quick response to incidents, ideally better saving lives and property.

But poorly maintained or used alarm systems create additional problems for firefighters, according to fire officials, that can lead to wasted resources in responding to unnecessary calls and potentially encourage complacency of those in the buildings as they become used to recurring false alarms.

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