bedlamVR Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 Hi, I am sure at least some us have been woken up by the wailing siren that is a fire alarm, grumpily or panic stricken bounced out of bed rushed outside to find out it was a "false alarm" I am currently in the middle of a PhD Program looking into fire detection . One of the questions I am looking at is what causes false alarms and I am looking for anecdotal evidence to go with my project and I wish to pose the question . In you experience what is the most common cause of a false alarm ? I appreciate your help . I am asking this question on a number of site but any feedback will be welcome . Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
China Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 Drunkenness. In college most of the false alarms were drunk college students pulling one of the alarms. Usually if there was a big party, it would be someone from off campus who came and thought they'd have some fun before they left. One time I managed to sleep right through one of the fire alarms; and it was right outside my door and very loud. --------- Here's one for you: In one of my previous jobs a few of us employees were given the task of making some training videos. One of them was what to do in case of fire. As we were playing out our scene, our supervisor was supposed to simulate pulling the alarm. He accidentally pulled it for real. It was hilarious watching him try to put it back as if that would get the alarm to stop. :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thiebear Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 Only if its Halon or C02 and unexpected :thud: ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paige3girl Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 I went to an all woman's college (Sweet Briar) and girls would of course venture over to the men's college (Hampden Sydney) for you know "study dates" and stuff. Well guys used to always pull the alarms to see what girls were staying the night and to see how bad that would look at say 4:00AM. (but of course that never happend to me ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bedlamVR Posted July 22, 2008 Author Share Posted July 22, 2008 Thanks for the responses so far ... i really like the stories to go with them ... In a previous job I had the responsobility of organizing the fire drills and depending on my mood if someone had said something it would either be a 4.50 just before knocking off time in the pooring rain or 11.30 jsut before lunch if it was sunny and we fancied an extra long lunch break .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No_Pressure Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 I hate those spray deodorants. Honestly, that axe stuff smells like **** and it stings my nostrils whenever I get within 500 yards of somebody who just sprayed that crap all over themselves. I hate it when women wear strong perfume or guys wear strong cologne also. There's nothing worse than sitting down on a plane or in some confined space next to someone that apparently doesn't have a sense of smell, because if he or she did they would be at the brink of vomitting as I always am. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinsNut73 Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 Hi, I am sure at least some us have been woken up by the wailing siren that is a fire alarm, grumpily or panic stricken bounced out of bed rushed outside to find out it was a "false alarm" I am currently in the middle of a PhD Program looking into fire detection . One of the questions I am looking at is what causes false alarms and I am looking for anecdotal evidence to go with my project and I wish to pose the question . In you experience what is the most common cause of a false alarm ? I appreciate your help . I am asking this question on a number of site but any feedback will be welcome . Thanks in advance Volunteer fireman here.... Our tiny town (only 6.2 sq miles) responds to roughly 550 calls per year. Out of those 550 calls, I would say roughly 100 of them are motor vehicle accidents. We average 20 calls which are real fires throughout the year. There's probably another 100 to 150 calls per year which are legit reasons for us to be there (electrical hazards, lift assists for the ambulance, brush fires). So that leaves about 280 to 330 calls per year which are "false" alarms. The biggest offender I think would be the malicious pull false alarms. The kids in the local schools pull the fire box so they can get out of class for a bit. Also, our town still has those old alarm boxes posted on telephone poles throughout town. This kids like to pull those quite frequently as well. We probably go to over 100 of those each year. I would say second place is just a malfunctioning alarm...usually in commercial establishments. The smoke detector just gets dirty/malfunctions/whatever and triggers the call to alarm monitor. In third place is food on the stove left unattended. You know how many times I am awakened at 1am for somebody who fell asleep while cooking chicken? At 1am??? The rest are just odd ones like steam from a shower setting off an alarm, or the neighbor who calls in a structure fire at your house - but all you are doing is cooking marshmellows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
China Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 I hate those spray deodorants. Honestly, that axe stuff smells like **** and it stings my nostrils whenever I get within 500 yards of somebody who just sprayed that crap all over themselves. I hate it when women wear strong perfume or guys wear strong cologne also. There's nothing worse than sitting down on a plane or in some confined space next to someone that apparently doesn't have a sense of smell, because if he or she did they would be at the brink of vomitting as I always am. What the hell does this have to do with false fire alarms??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PokerPacker Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 my dad used to call the fire alarm the bad-food detector :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twenty-eight Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 My freshman year of hs, the senior class prank was to pull the fire alarm 98 times. It was a lot of fun:) Teachers couldn't teach...we were being evacuated once a period, sometimes twice. I dont remember how long it lasted...I dont think they got to 98. They installed the ink sprayer and put those plastic covers on them that make a loud screech when lifted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheers, Beers and Mountaineers Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 **** all the dbags who pulled the fire alarm in my dorm freshman year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No_Pressure Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 What the hell does this have to do with false fire alarms??? The poll question was "what annoys you" I picked aerosols, so thats what I posted about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinsTerps26 Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 What about the alarm that UMD has for terrorist or school shootings that would be "tested" like once a week or something. Everyone knew to just ignore it. what a waste of tuition money :doh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad89 Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 **** all the dbags who pulled the fire alarm in my dorm freshman year. Amen. We had 5 in one month. I was sick one time and so I stayed home. I was awakened at 3:30am by the fire alarm. I got out of bed and wrapped my blanket around me and walked outside, figuring it wouldn't take long for them to reset the system. It was under 40 degrees. I had on boxers and a blanket. We were out there for an hour. It sucked. Another time I was a bit inebriated, and I'm assuming someone pulled the alarm. I heard it around 2:30am, sat bolt upright, said "****.." and layed my head back down on the pillow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCnDC17 Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 Amen.We had 5 in one month. Sounds like my experience freshman year. I stayed in Pritchard at Virginia Tech, which I believe is still the largest male dorms on the east coast or something like that. We had at least 1-2 pulls per weekend it seemed. I know I stopped counting around 40 for the first semester. I hated when I had just gotten to sleep only to be woken up 10-15 min later and have to stumble back out into the cold :mad: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rumrunner6900 Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 This is kinda funny to read! Most of the dumbass fire alarms when I went to Radford(and still to this day) were from drunk idiots trying to bake their pizza still in the box, or trying to boil ramen without any water. Usually around 2 or 3 in the AM! :doh: I used to sleep through them....figured my roommate would wake me up if it was real. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buford T. Justice Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 microwave popcorn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paige3girl Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 microwave popcorn I went to boarding school and this happened at least once a week in the dorm kitchens.... :doh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.