This article starts with “in a school building, the sound of the fire alarm can be frightening”. They’re dang right. I was terrified of the sound when I when to school.
They are not talking about the fear of loud noise or the phobia of fire alarms.
They are discussing peoples fears of a real fire and the disturbance an alarm causes to the class.
I think I am the only one here who actually enjoyed fire drills during my time in grade/primary school.
Yeah, I know. I just find it funny how they say “the sound of the fire alarm can be frightening”, because I always found it that way, but for a different reason than they’re talking about.
Unfortunately, fear of fire alarms is not something many recognize.
When I was much younger (in elementary school), fire alarms scared the living daylights out of me. Whenever I got the suspicion (or was told) that a fire drill was going to occur, I would break down in tears and plug my ears real tight to try and drown out the sound of the alarm. These embarrassing episodes continued until middle school, when i started to learn to be less afraid of the fire alarms.
It all started with a YouTube search on fire alarms, but it was also around this time that I discovered The Schumin Web, and not long after, this forum. I was completely blown away by how much knowledge the people here had on fire alarm systems. I have always been thinking of becoming a member since then, but it wasn’t until I got my email account and a registering restriction was lifted on the site.
Now that I am in high school, I am still nervous whenever I have suspicions that one or more fire drills will occur (my heart races, and I get tense), but the noise doesn’t bother me much anymore, and some faculty members have been able to assist me when it came to fire alarms. I have learned to become more independent in facing my fears, as I know that when I go off to college and eventually get a job, I have to show that I am capable of handling unexpected situations like these…
Here is the discussion of a student who was refusing to participate in a fire drill. I know in elementary school, refusing to participate in a fire drill would be the last thing on my mind. I’d want to get away from that loud scary fire alarm.
You’re not the only one :). I don’t know what started my interest, but it wasn’t because I was afraid of them.