NationStates Jolt Archive

There was just a fire alarm in the computer building. Like pretty much everyone else I kept on at what I was doing for a few minutes, hoping the fire alarm would just stop and I wouldn't have to leave. Unfortunately I did have to leave, but fortunately there was no fire. So, how do you react to fire alarms?

Poll Coming!

I take the toast out from under the grill...

I proceed to the nearest fire exit in an orderly fashion.

I imagine I'd ask passersby if they know if there is a fire or if some jacknut just pulled the alarm.

I normally check the clock to see if it's Wednesday, 4 pm. That's when they test the alarm here, so everyone knows it's just a test and reacts suitably annoyed at the noise.
If it's not Wednesday, 4 pm, I get my personal stuff, lock my computer and go outside with the rest.

I have a look round, see if there's actually a fire, and when I find out there totally isn't, I get back on with whatever I was doing.

never heard one go off

Close all windows and evacuate the building according to the escape plan (which I was provided with AND read OR which I made myself if I didn`t get a official one [which should be a VERY BIG NO!]). If asked to assist the evacuation of disabled or infirm people I will assist as requested.

Once I`ve left the building I`ll go to the rally point and qait for further orders from security, first responders or emergency staff.

Play chicken and try and be the last one out of the building.

Close all windows and evacuate the building according to the escape plan (which I was provided with AND read OR which I made myself if I didn`t get a official one [which should be a VERY BIG NO!]). If asked to assist the evacuation of disabled or infirm people I will assist as requested.

Once I`ve left the building I`ll go to the rally point and qait for further orders from security, first responders or emergency staff.Thank you, Mr legal eagle.

Me, the alarm went off and woke me up then I put in down to some pot heads forgetting to open their window and/or putting a sock ove their fire alarm. If it's at any other time it's probably best to find out where the fire is (they have little machine in the stairwell for the firemen that tells you what room it is in). If some idiot's burnt the toast then I'm going back to my room.

Well, that was last year. I live in a private house this year.

There was just a fire alarm in the computer building. Like pretty much everyone else I kept on at what I was doing for a few minutes, hoping the fire alarm would just stop and I wouldn't have to leave. Unfortunately I did have to leave, but fortunately there was no fire. So, how do you react to fire alarms?

Poll Coming!

I usually wait for the most excitable people to run out screaming and stomping each other to death at the fire exits, then take my things and walk out calmly via the main exit, that usually is broader and less crowded than fire exits.
If I'm near to the fire, I shut down electricity and close gas conduits, then use the fire extinguisher or the water hose.

I remember this one time when a building was more damaged by someone trying to fight the 'fire' rather than the actual 'fire' itself. Some idiot heard the fire alarm going off he rushed to the stairwell where there is a wet riser and turned on the fire hose. However the system hadn't been properly maintained because a dry riser had been installed (why they hadn't turned the wet riser off I don't know).

Anyway, some part of the pipe of the wet riser below the hose broke and started flooding that floor and all those beneath it. I was one of the last to leave and as I walked out past reception the polystyrene ceiling of the reception collapsed. We couldn't get back into the building for 48 hours. Lots of people had their possessions damaged in that flood. Not I though, I was on the top floor and avoided all damage. :)

Thank you, Mr legal eagle.



You`re welcome. Can`t help it. Once a guard always a guard. lol.

turn it off

If it's a standalone household-type fire alarm: take it's battery out.

In a big building, with an actual fire, I would proceed to the roof. The sensible people who mustered at the designated safe area could watch in envy as I got a helicopter ride. Failing that, I could aim for the fattest and slowest one and try to land on them.

I normally check the clock to see if it's Wednesday, 4 pm. That's when they test the alarm here, so everyone knows it's just a test and reacts suitably annoyed at the noise.
If it's not Wednesday, 4 pm, I get my personal stuff, lock my computer and go outside with the rest.
Let's just hope that you'll never have a fire on Wednesday, 4 pm!

(Hope you don't have any disgrunteled pyromaniac ex-workers who got fired, know about the drill, and want to take revenge...)

Ignore it, I'm Asbestos-Man and immune to fire.

The fire alarm went off here again. And we had to evacuate, again. :(

I walk out calmly, while instructing others to panic and flee.

i had a fire alarm go off during my first exam the other day. it was pretty annoying, and we weren't allowed to go in and finish cuz the alarm carried on til after the exam was supposed to finish. we'll get special consideration though which may well work in my favour. i hope so cuz these are my finals.

The fire alarm went off here again. And we had to evacuate, again. :(

in my university halls in first year we once had 7 fire alarms in a night during an exam period. and it was pissing it down too. apparently some drunk idiot had set the alarm off first and damaged it so it kept tripping on again.

When I was in college... there was a fire alarm in the dorm every fucking day. Unless someone came pounding on my dfoor shouting "Dude... SaintB! Get out of there!" I just kept doing whatever I was doing.

Stay where I am - death is preferable to a corridor and four flights of stairs full of excited year 7s all claiming to have set off the fire alarm.

I work in a large building. It takes time to get out.

I'd hate to ignore a fire alarm, and be wrong.

Never hapened with me.

If it did, I would try to find the fire and stare inside it for truth.

And laughing while doing it.

Go back to sleep. In my first year at my student accomodation the fire alarm went off every 5 mins, usually at 2 in the morning. Thing is, it's right over my bed and is so loud I swear its damaged my hearing.

Leave via the nearest/most convenient exit shouting 'Oh my God, we're all going to die', then go to the nearest pub.

If it goes off more than once in a couple of hours, it's clearly broken, so every time after the first I'd just ignore it.

Go back to sleep. In my first year at my student accomodation the fire alarm went off every 5 mins, usually at 2 in the morning. Thing is, it's right over my bed and is so loud I swear its damaged my hearing.

We'll put that on your tombstone:

"I went back to sleep."

We'll put that on your tombstone:

"I went back to sleep."

Well when you live on the 12th floor and every time the fire alarm goes off, it's because some drunk has burned the toast, the urgency sort of disappears.

If it's a standalone household-type fire alarm: take it's battery out.

In a big building, with an actual fire, I would proceed to the roof. The sensible people who mustered at the designated safe area could watch in envy as I got a helicopter ride. Failing that, I could aim for the fattest and slowest one and try to land on them.

As a retired career Fire Captain, I guess that we will get to you when it is all said and done.

Remember the physical properties and dynamics of fire. Heat will rise. If it is a high rise building, the smoke and super heated gases, both which will kill you, will make their way to the top of the building. If you see videos of fire in high rise buildings, you will notice that almost always the top of the building is covered in smoke. That makes it near impossible to lift any firefighting crews by helicopter to the roofs.

Basic high rise firefighting strategy is that we stop at the floor below the fire. We make our connections to the standpipe system, then we make our way one floor up to the fire, and attack it. In the meanwhile, most modern high rise buildings will allow us to vent the smoke and superheated gases out thru the roof of the building, thus why it is not a good idea.

Once the fire is over, we start to search the fire floor for any victims. Then we go to the top floor and search our way down back to the fire floor. And last I remember, there are no emergency phones on the roof of buildings.

Plus remember, very few cities have helicopters that belong to the fire departments.

Now, if you still want to go to the roof be my guest. Just hope you can find the real fat one on the ground to land on.

Vic

As a retired career Fire Captain, I guess that we will get to you when it is all said and done.

Remember the physical properties and dynamics of fire. Heat will rise. If it is a high rise building, the smoke and super heated gases, both which will kill you, will make their way to the top of the building. If you see videos of fire in high rise buildings, you will notice that almost always the top of the building is covered in smoke. That makes it near impossible to lift any firefighting crews by helicopter to the roofs.

Basic high rise firefighting strategy is that we stop at the floor below the fire. We make our connections to the standpipe system, then we make our way one floor up to the fire, and attack it. In the meanwhile, most modern high rise buildings will allow us to vent the smoke and superheated gases out thru the roof of the building, thus why it is not a good idea.

Once the fire is over, we start to search the fire floor for any victims. Then we go to the top floor and search our way down back to the fire floor. And last I remember, there are no emergency phones on the roof of buildings.

Plus remember, very few cities have helicopters that belong to the fire departments.

Now, if you still want to go to the roof be my guest. Just hope you can find the real fat one on the ground to land on.

Vic

I was in a building fire (10 story building, I was on 8). I never saw flames, but there was a crapload of smoke. Someone's office on 4 had an electrical fire.

The stairwells were filled with smoke as soon as people started to use them. On 8, we couldn't smell anything while the alarm was sounding, and we thought it was a joke until we opened the door to the stairwell.

Then people panicked.

Panic is not a good thing - neither is black oily plastic smelling smoke.

If you're planning on leaving the building under your own power, leave when the alarm goes off.

There was just a fire alarm in the computer building. Like pretty much everyone else I kept on at what I was doing for a few minutes, hoping the fire alarm would just stop and I wouldn't have to leave. Unfortunately I did have to leave, but fortunately there was no fire. So, how do you react to fire alarms?

Poll Coming!

our alarms come with an overhead announcement. thus people can tell if it's either a drill, test, maintenance, fire, someone bumped the alarm, etc...

but we all check our surrounding area to make sure there is no smoke or flames.

Wasn't the 2nd Amendment about fire alarms?

Wasn't the 2nd Amendment about fire alarms?

No. That was Kristallnacht.

No. That was Kristallnacht.
Ouch!

We'll put that on your tombstone:

"I went back to sleep."

"And never regretted it"

I must say I'm surprised at the lack of goofball input on this thread.
"Fire alarms" would be enough, I'd have thought.
Read the poll, at least half the options are rather silly.

I'm doing my best, but there's nothing like the real thing. Bring the LG!

honestly i dont do anything until im sure there is a fire.

ill go over to the door (if appropriate) and feel to see if its hot, open it up and look. if nothing is happening, ill pay some attention but im not leaving until i know its real.

i dont spend much time in big buildings.

Complain to the person nearest to me about how loud the alarm is, watch them nod as they don't hear a word I am saying, and then walk towards the nearest physically feasable exit.

My school has this really annoying tradition involving fire alarms. See, the first-year students all have a class at 8:00 in the morning (MWF), so when that class has a test all of them stay up late studying and try to catch some sleep after 3 or so in the morning.

Invariably, at about 4 in the morning of at least one of those pre-test mornings, someone is going to set off the fire alarms.

When this happens, I can generally be found outside, ranting about the fire alarm-pulling idiots. Standing outside in pajamas/bathrobes/etc. in freezing weather is NOT COOL. Neither is the 3-week late-night lockdown that sometimes follows it. :mad:

Go back to sleep. In my first year at my student accomodation the fire alarm went off every 5 mins, usually at 2 in the morning. Thing is, it's right over my bed and is so loud I swear its damaged my hearing.

You know, there's a pretty good reason why they're so loud...




Personally, I lost a friend in a fire 2 months ago. I leave the building pretty fast if I am not entirely sure there isn't a fire.

Well. Last fire alarm that I had here at the university. I ran downstairs to help my ex's mother out of the building (she's hemaplegic) and then carried her stuff so she didn't have to, while walking to the door and then out the building.

And it's fun cause there are two different fire alarm systems in the building, cause it's an old building, so I was hearing like a "BEEP BEEP" as well as a "siren" style alarm. Gave me one hell of a headache.

well, since I am in my house....if the fire alarm goes off it's pretty much that something is on fire, so I grab the kids and flee....I would suppose, nothing actually has caught fire here yet......

when I worked at the hospital it would go off for no reason at least twice a week, which meant I would have to get up and close the fire doors then go back to my office and call maintenance to find out where the fire was.... and it was always the same answer "we don't know, do you see or smell smoke?" and I would say "no" and they would say "okay" and then yell into the background "it's not on the 3rd floor!"

:rolleyes: I felt so safe......

:p

Needs multiple choice. I'd leave orderly, but I'd bring 'Trina with me and post about it on NSG wirelessly.

Had a fire alarm in the Math Building. Then again, it was just a drill and nothing more. :D

I just get really damn pissed, because, living in a dorm, the alarm invariably goes off around 3-5 in the morning when some drunk idiot stumbles in. I'm right near one of the alarms, and, apparently, the fire department actually checks each room. Add in that I live on the top floor (10). And, of course, during finals, even MORE people pull alarms. Causing me to not be well-rested for finals.