One of the reasons I switched to Surety was because my former company didn’t provide the Cancel/Verify app functionality (there were many other reasons too…). They also said that even if I used a Firefighter with my current hardwired smoke/CO detectors that are not hooked to my IQ4 panel, that the fire department would be dispatched anyway, even if I used the Cancel feature in the app to cancel the alarm.
My concern is that I have a smoke/CO detector that’s positioned just outside my kitchen door, and, well, there have been instances where things have gotten a bit smoky when cooking. I obviously don’t want the fire department showing up in that instance.
Is it really feasible to cancel a fire alarm in this instance? Is there time to cancel the alarm so that I won’t have the fire department showing up at my door? What’s the sequence of events and timing when a fire alarm is reported?
Verification Call :
They will call you or your emergency contacts to confirm if it’s a real alarm. If you provide the correct password, they cancel the alarm. If they can’t reach you or it’s confirmed as a real emergency, they move forward. You can change your password and modify your call list order at this link.
Dispatch Emergency Services :
If needed, the monitoring center contacts your local 911 dispatch center to notify the appropriate emergency services (police, fire, or medical) based on the type of alarm.
Per the Surety Default Central Monitoring Procedures , Police/Fire authorities will be called where indicated in your contact list. If an alarm is cancelled and dispatch is enroute, some agencies choose to still proceed.
Thanks very much for the information. It sounds as though I’d be able to either cancel the alarm in the app, or give the all clear verbally via 2-way or premise contact before the fire department was notified, and that would avoid the issue.
I don’t see where exactly in the timing of events the Cancel/Verify notification shows up in the app. Would that be essentially the same as this?
Cancel/Verify only appears when the panel has registered that sensors have been tripped and the system is in an alarm state.
Whenever an alarm is triggered at the home location and the entry delay timer has elapsed, the alarm signal is sent to the monitoring station, and the Cancel/Verify card appears in the app. Cancel/Verify appears for all alarm events but does not appear in the app outside of an alarm event. When Cancel/Verify has been activated, only logins with Master level permissions on the account can interact with it. Any login with a permission level less than Master cannot view or use the feature.
When using the app, if an alarm is Verified (red button), an electronic abort or cancel signal will not stop dispatch. If someone calls in afterward to report it as a false alarm, they can request a cancellation, but dispatch has likely already occurred. Whether or not the police respond depends on their policies, as they would have already informed that it was a verified alarm. In many cases, law enforcement may choose not to cancel the dispatch based on that verification.
To cancel or verify an alarm using the customer app:
Once the system is in alarm, log into the app.
Cancel/Verify remains active in the app until 2 minutes past the alarm signal was sent.
During the 2-minute countdown, quickly review video cameras or communicate with those at home.
Press and hold Cancel Alarm or Verify Alarm until the alarm has been canceled or verified.
A confirmation screen pops up to let you know the signal has been canceled or verified.
The Cancel/Verify function also works with fire alarm events, correct?
If so, it seems that there would be time, between the Cancel/Verify feature and the 2-way or premise contact from the monitoring station, to cancel a fire alarm event in the case of a tray of burnt cookies, because the monitoring station doesn’t notify authorities until after 2-way and premise contact have been attempted.
