I’m a journalist from The Globe, Point Park University’s student newspaper. The fire alarm system malfunctioned in one of our buildings, playing an alert tone non-stop around 3 a.m instead of eventually switching to a pre-recorded voice message - it normally switches after playing the tone for about three seconds. I am working on a news piece explaining what happened and why.
The university’s vice president of maintenance said in a statement that it was caused by a “breaker failure,” but I’m hoping to also get the insight of someone with knowledge about these systems and what they think. The alarms did go off a few hours earlier for a legitimate reason (burnt food) and operated as normal, but this malfunction happened just hours later.
I do not claim to be well-versed on anything related to fire alarms, so I am open to being educated (which would also help the story a lot too!). Someone told me that the system this building uses is called a “Cerberus Pyrotronics MXL-V,” but I haven’t actually seen the alarm panel to confirm this.
Attached is video of the malfunction. I do not live in the building this happened in and I’m also working to find out exactly how long the tone played. I appreciate anybody who is willing to check this out! Lawrence Hall Fire Alarm Malfunction
I would say it’s a computer glitch in the system. It has nothing to do with a “breaker failure”. These MXL systems are pretty early computer-based systems and seem to be fairly prone to glitches like this.
I know of this video that shows an issue where it is stuck on part of the voice message:
Yeah, it definitely seems like a glitch, breaker failure would have caused the battery backup to kick in. It also depends on if the system was activated and then the glitch occurred or the glitch caused the system to play one of its tones repeating a short part of it. Some systems are more prone to glitches and troubles due to issues with the software. Fire alarm system can go years without a full restart as they have to be active 24/7. Issues can especially arise with older software revisions.
Okay, this video is hilarious. I did have a hunch that a breaker failure didn’t make sense for such a glitch to happen, so I appreciate the comment! From what I’m aware, the system is usually working fine (inspection reports of the building online haven’t shown any fire alarm violations for over five years).
Initially, I thought that the alarm was at least “valid” but at no point during the malfunction did any of the fire engines get an alert for a fire in the building. Normally, the system does send an alert to a very close-by fire station but it did not during the malfunction. I verified this by listening to the fire radio feed from 2:00 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. and heard nothing about the building. Thank you so much for the detailed response!
Yeah: all a breaker failure would do is cut power to the system, at which point the panel’s backup batteries would take over (if they work properly of course).
“violations” are technically different from “malfunctions” but alright: nice to hear that that system has held up over the years.
Here’s another example of an MXL-V system malfunctioning:
If you’re curious, the violations I refer to relate to the fire alarm system not working - granted, this hasn’t happened since 2017 thankfully. It is very weird that the VP of maintenance told me something that is so different than what you guys are saying but I’m going to trust the experts (you all) on this. Thank you!
It’s funny we have the same name
Oh okay (it’s likely because we’re far more dedicated to a specific subject like this than they are (which of course has its advantages at times). You’re welcome!
Yeah, heh.
I always love unique posts like this showing up on the forums : )
The system you mentioned, an MXL-V, is setup in a configuration with hundreds of speakers scattered around the building, as well as a primary source for the audio for said speakers (this is called an Audio Controller, in most circumstances). In the videos that aerhardt and Carson linked, a failure of that audio controller caused a partial message segment to be played over and over during the alarm condition.
However, I believe that since this is simply a continuous tone, something else may have failed in this circumstance. Fire alarm systems typically supervise all speakers that are connected (supervise in this case means that the panel is ensuring that the wires running around the whole building to each speaker have not been broken or disconnected in some way), and this is done using a static tone which is played over the speakers, but is not audible in a normal condition.
Taking a look at the Manufacturer Datasheet, there are 4 possible things that could have failed to cause this to happen:
ACM-1 Audio Control Module
This was the source of the failure in both videos linked in previous replies.
ASC-1 Amplifier Supervision and Backup Card
ASC-2 Amplifier and Riser Supervisory Card
DMC-1 Digital Message Card
If I had to guess, this is probably the least likely one to have failed, but it is always a possibility.
I don’t think a simple AC power loss would have caused this failure, but that can occasionally happen on systems with older hardware which has been running in the same state for a long time (in some cases, years even!)
I hope this helps you get one step closer to figuring out what the root cause of the issue is. I’d be interested in hearing any updates, if you happen to have any!
Wow, this is an incredibly detailed and helpful response - thank you so so very much! The person who told me it was a breaker problem likely won’t give me more details but I’ll make sure to follow up anyway. The system likely hasn’t been shut off since it was installed (and who knows how long ago that was), which is crazy to think about. It will certainly be interesting if this ends up happening again!
