Business Area This page is to help business owners within Essex Junction with commonly asked questions that are asked to the fire department. If you have a question that is not on this page, and you can't find it on the FAQ page, feel free to e-mail your question to us by any applicable e-mail address on the Contact Page. If your question is common, you could see your question listed on this page! Q. If I'm a business owner, where can I learn more about local/state fire codes? A. The Department of Public Safety website has lots of useful information (www.dps.state.vt.us/fire). Q. If my business' fire alarm goes off, what should my tenants, occupants, or customers do? A. Everyone needs to evacuate the building in a calm but hurried manor. Do not treat the alarm as a false alarm until the fire department has checked everything out. Do not let anyone back into the building until after the fire department has checked and verified that there is no hazard. Also keep people at least 100 feet away from the building. Q. Can I silence my own fire alarm if I have access or have a key? A. The sound of the alarm may be irritating but do not silence it. After the fire department has checked everything out, they will silence the alarm. Remember, if the alarm is going off don't treat it as a false alarm, assume every alarm is real. If you do silence the alarm, the fire department has no way to know where and why this occurred. We also document locations and recommended steps to fix the issue, if we find that it is a maintenance issue. Q. Who should I contact at the fire department to allow after hour access to my establishment? A. Contact the fire department on the non-emergency line (878-6958) and make an appointment to speak with an officer about our Knox Box program. You can learn more about this program by visiting: www.knoxbox.com. Q. Should I provide the fire department building plans or specific sprinkler/fire alarm information? A. We would love to have as much information as we can. Contact the fire department on the non-emergency line (878-6958) and make an appointment to speak with an officer about doing a preplan of your business. Q. What brand/type of smoke/carbon monoxide detector would you recommend? A.We do not endorse any particular brand of detector; however, if you visit your local hardware store they will be sure to provide different brands. We also suggest that once you do own smoke detectors, you should test them each month and change the batteries at least twice a year. Remember to use brand new batteries whenever you change your clocks.