Over the past few months, 4 fire drills have occurred. I thought we could’ve had one yesterday because I saw the SimplexGrinnell van outside, but I think they were working on the clock system because it needed repairs. Anywho, here we go: (check out my Various Fire Drills video on my YouTube channel for audio)
On a side note; I am at school early and took more pictures of the fire alarms; video on my channel of a slideshow of these to come soon.
August 2016:
Occurred during 5th hour. All signals and functions worked as observed. My earlier fire drill video I uploaded before my “Various Fire Drills” video shows this drill.
September 2016:
Drill occurred during 2nd hour. All signals and fire doors were operable as observed. My “Various Fire Drills” video also shows drills from the past year because I was not able to get audio of drills conducted in October and November.
October 2016: 5th hour.
November 2016: 5th hour.
December 2016: We have yet to have one for this month.
We had a false fire alarm during the last hour of today’s final exams. I had finished my PE final and was playing knockout with a few guys in the gym when the alarms sounded. It was about 11 degrees outside and the winds made for a -20 degree windchill. Luckily, my gym teacher opened up a storage shed outside for a few classes to gather in. FD showed up and cleared the building after about 10 minutes.
When we headed back in the alarms resounded for about 5 seconds and then stopped. This carried on for about 15 minutes afterwards. Our principal sent out an email that suggested it was a smoke detector in a mechanical room, so they were probably still trying to get it to clear resulting in the resounding of the alarms.
[quote]
Fire and Police Departments were extremely quick to respond. We located the detector that was tripped and did a thorough examination of the area and mechanical equipment proximal to the scene. Once given the all clear, we brought students back into the building and got them back to their rooms. Please know that we were outside for approximately 10 minutes in all.
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He also gave a nice shoutout to my gym teacher
Being in the gym, I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt at the time, so it was pretty cold :lol: . Not to mention it ruined a good game of knockout.
Something similar happened to me at my middle school a few years ago, a EST smoke detector malfunctioned and everybody had to leave; but we had to walk in weather which, if I recall correctly, was about -25 degrees. We had to walk without coats to our high school and gather there for a bit. The kids in the Phys Ed class were sprinting to the school because all they were wearing was our PE uniforms: a tank top and shorts. I remember feeling really bad for them.
Ouch, I had to today! The student center in my college had a small fire; someone burnt food in a microwave. So when I was in the library the alarms went off, and we all had to get our things and evacuate. It’s a good thing unlike public school fire alarm evacuations, here they insist we get all our stuff, so at least we were wearing our coats. I also got some video footage on my Smartphone of a few of the older alarms in action…
Yes, the first one in the video had the strobe not working, so I reported it to the campus police and to the fire department. I bet once I go back for the spring semester, it will have been replaced. Outside, I could also hear the SpectrAlert Advance horn/strobes in the renovated wings sounding on Code 3, while the old alarms were on Continuous.
We had a fire drill at our middle school (where I am an intern) last Wednesday at 8:15 AM. Evacuation took 45 seconds, alarms sounded for about 65 seconds.
Our AHJ requires our schools to activate a different manual pull station each time. I saw the secretary pull the alarm, but the Fire-Lite MS-5210UD activated quickly enough that I didn’t have enough time to cover my ears before the Wheelock 34T (flush-mount+dual-projector) in the hallway and the AS-241575FR in our band room (which I was standing right under) began to blare in Continuous (The AS is on high volume). LOUD!!!
The original 1977 panel was a Standard Electric Time SET-7000. Then, a Cerberus Pyrotronics SXL-EX and a Fire-Lite MS-5210UD shared control of the system. The current panel is solely the Fire-Lite MS-5210UD.
All the pulls are RSG RMS-1T pulls rebranded by Brooks Equipment. Automatic detection is a mix; there are a few Chemtronics heat sensors left from the original system, but most were replaced with System Sensor 1451 sensors along with a few Cerberus Pyrotronics DI-3 models.
The signals are a mix. The dominant signals are Wheelock 34 and 34T horns both surface and flush mounted, one flush 34 with a dual projector attachment (the 34 open-grille models being original). A System Sensor MA replaced a flush mounted 34 horn in the gym building (and it’s not obvious unless you look closely or hear it go off). There are a few Cerberus Pyrotronics MC-S17-F horn/strobes in the office wing and a Wheelock AS-241575-FR in the band room. The mobile classrooms all have new System Sensor P2R horn/strobes (but no sync).
Needless to say…Fire Drills are LOUD and obnoxious!!
This literally sounds exactly like what you would hear if you are in the band room at this school and the fire alarm system activates. (Except for when the MT glitches and goes into Bell.)
I really don’t know why that happened. My only guess is the vibration from the 34-24 caused the switch to fall enough to change the tone. Either that or my MT decided to be different in the New Year… lol
There was a false alarm this evening during one of my classes. The building in question mainly uses first-generation Wheelock MIZs (the classroom where I was, however, had a Mircom MH-25W) set to continuous and is equipped with a Cerberus Pyrotronics MXL panel. While the MIZs aren’t particularly loud in this setup, mini-horns sounding in continuous create a rather irritating sound.
Since the neighbourhood fire station is located on the same block as this building, firefighters were on site before I had even stepped outside.
