posted
My school's 6th form block is an ex-British Gas building (don't ask), complete with industrial fire alarms which were fitted one per room. One of the classrooms is made up of three of the old rooms. They didn't remove the fire alarms. It was painful.
-------------------- "I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman, which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Jubal Harshaw
Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged
posted
Well, I heard from my RA about it. Turns out that it was actually faulty equipment -- something happened to one of the sprinklers (not damaged by a resident, from what I've heard) that caused the alarm to go off, scare everyone outside, and then the Public Safety people couldn't shut the damn thing off!
I think we should demand a refund of our security deposits if that's the kind of quality living we can expect here...
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by Malnurtured Snay: She, uh, put out the fire on it first ... ... right?
Nope. She just grabbed it and tossed it under her bed. We lucked out that it didn't catch anything else on fire.
quote:Originally posted by MinutiaeMan: Turns out that it was actually faulty equipment -- something happened to one of the sprinklers (not damaged by a resident, from what I've heard) that caused the alarm to go off, scare everyone outside, and then the Public Safety people couldn't shut the damn thing off!
Sounds like a broken waterflow monitor. In my experience, the slightest bit of damage to the sensor will cause it to easily go into alarm and stay in alarm until fixed or disabled.
We had a similar problem when a delivery truck struck the loading dock sprinkler pipe. The force pretty much destroyed the sensor. The fire alarm company had to walk me through disabling the waterflow monitor so that the fire alarm system could be reset.
I have way too many residence hall fire alarm stories.
-------------------- The philosopher's stone. Those who possess it are no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice and create without equal exchange. We searched for it, and we found it.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
My parents always tell this story when Fire Alarms come up in a conversation (Thankfully it's none to often ).
Anyways, the story goes like this: My mother took my younger sister and myself to the bank to deposit a check. I was standing on the chair looking around when I noticed a bright shiny rectangle on the wall (Guess what it was). I was only three and didn't know what the damn thing was, so I grabbed it. I was more than startled when the alarm started blairing and I fell off the chair, and smoked my head on the floor. My sister who got really scared (She was about two) took off and ran straight into the vault. My mom was so embarassed, she still thinks that we planned to clean out the bank. That's my fire alarm story.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
posted
Which is why small children shouldn't be brought out in public.
That, and screaming and crying and kicking seats and running around insanelike at movies.
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
quote: Turns out that it was actually faulty equipment -- something happened to one of the sprinklers (not damaged by a resident, from what I've heard) that caused the alarm to go off, scare everyone outside, and then the Public Safety people couldn't shut the damn thing off!
I would think better that than to have it quietly fail and a fire starts for real, and kills everyone in the building, but that is just me.
I like fire alarms, when I was a teen we didn't have one, and the up stairs of my house caught fire, didn't know it till I went up and opened the hallway door, feeding it nicely. What a whooosh, that movie 'Backdraft' wasn't far off for my little fire.
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
Registered: Sep 2000
| IP: Logged
posted
Back when I was in the Air Force in the mid-80s, the smoke detectors in our rooms were so sensitive that if you smoked in your room (yes, we could do that back then), you had an excellent chance of setting off the fire alarm. That happened on such a regular basis that even the dorm manager started ignoring the alarms. Luckily we never had a fire.
-------------------- The difference between genius and idiocy? Genius has its limits.
Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged
posted
And yet, it didn't occur to anyone to say "don't smoke in your rooms"? Is that the infamous "military intelligence" at work there?
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
quote:I would think better that than to have it quietly fail and a fire starts for real, and kills everyone in the building, but that is just me.
Oh, undoubtedly. But I would much rather that they not malfunction AT ALL. My family and I *ARE* paying them about $10,000 a year or more.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
| IP: Logged
posted
Eh, if you feel like, you could file a written complaint with the director of housing and vice-president of student affairs. You might see something positive come out of it. However, seeing as how cynical I am, I wouldn't hold my breath on that.
If you think things are completely out of hand and that the administration isn't doing the slightest thing to the correct the situation, complain to the city/county fire marshal. Nothing motivates dorm runners better than having a government official breathing down their necks who also has the authority to impose fines and/or shut down the hall.
-------------------- The philosopher's stone. Those who possess it are no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice and create without equal exchange. We searched for it, and we found it.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
).
Printer-friendly view of this topic
