In the story of the boy who cried wolf, the boy's friends don't come to help in a real emergency because of too many false alarms.

San Bernardino County residents don't have to worry about the Fire Department deciding not to show up, but they will have to pay up to $900 if they cry wolf too many times.

Over the next few months, the department plans to start charging residents and businesses for false alarms. The department charges nothing for a first or second false alarm, $100 for a third, $300 for a fourth, and $900 for each false alarm after that.

County Fire Chief Danny Wurl said the penalties for false alarms are aimed at making sure firefighters are responding to genuine emergencies, not wasting their time driving to non incidents.

"It's not just a cost to drive out there for a false alarm," Wurl said. "There may be another incident occuring in that engine's area, and we don't want to be pulling them away for a false alarm that keeps going off."

Cutting down on the number of false alarms would also cut down on the number of emergency or "Code 3" driving incidents by firefighters.