The LaGrange Fire District
Knox Box Information

If you are a commercial property or business owner in the town of LaGrange, this information may be of interest to you. If your property or business is protected with a fire and/or smoke detection system, which is monitored by a central monitoring station that notifies us of an alarm, this information should be of interest to you.

The scenario;
A smoke detector in your facility goes off, the central station notes the alarm, calls 911 to report the alarm activation and attempts to notify a key holder. While, at the same time, the fire department is dispatched and responds to the scene to investigate. Upon our arrival, we see nothing from the outside and need to check inside, but a key holder has not arrived on the scene yet. We ask the dispatch center for an estimated time of arrival for a key holder, but they inform us that the alarm company can't reach anyone or that the key holder is several minutes away. We have two options available to us; we can wait for a key holder or we can force our way into the facility, likely damaging or even destroying the lock or door. If we wait and there is a legitimate fire, the fire will have that much more time to burn out of control. If the alarm turns out to be a malfunction and we had to force the door, your property has been needlessly damaged and the security of your facility will remain compromised until repairs are completed. Neither option is very comforting.

Meanwhile, had there been a Knox Box available, the extent of the damage could have been dramatically reduced or completely eliminated. What is a Knox Box? It is a small vault-like box that is anchored to your property and contains a key to the facility. Keys for the Knox Box itself are secured in most of our fire apparatus and can only be removed when the 911 Call Center releases it. With a key for your facility available upon our arrival, we have the ability to gain immediate access, without forcing our way in, to determine the cause of the alarm, take the appropriate action and, if a key holder isn't available, leave the facility and it contents as secure as we found it.

Please call LaGrange Station 2 any weekday or click on the Knox Box link, if you have any questions or would like additional information about the installation of a Knox Box.