I have heard of cases in movie theaters when the fire alarms were going off, and people in the theater complained about the alarms, asking that the employees of the theater shut them off because they are “annoying them”, and while they’re at it, could they also “rewind the movie”.
You sound a touch familiar…
Yeah, that happens sometimes. However, my theater has a voice evacuation system, with speaker-strobes in the auditorium itself. Honestly, if you don’t know to evacuate at the sound of a fire alarm, your school fire drills taught you nothing. That’s why, if something like that happens, I’d pipe up and say something like “That’s a fire alarm! We need to evacuate, unless they specifically say it’s a false alarm. Everyone leave the building!”
But that’s just me.
People largely seem to think otherwise. They seem to think, just ignore it, unless they specifically say there’s a fire or they can smell smoke.
Still. A fire alarm isn’t a regular enough occurance that someone will simply ignore it. Of course they’ll notice it, and that’s the point.
Also, British company Vimpex did a study on this.
I think if its a large building people may evacuate, but a store or a large room with lots of exits people think they are safe since they don’t see smoke.
I think that people don’t evacuate unless they see others evacuating or signs of a reason to evacuate.
At this point, it can be too late.
Stupidity is deadly.
It really is just an extremely unsafe thing to not notice alarms. This goes mainly for pull stations. Trust me i know what its like to not notice alarms. About a year ago i never was into alarms actually. I wouldn’t notice them too much at all. would from time to time notice them, but that was pretty rare. I do remember seeing a Wheelock 7001T when i was about 7 or 8. If it weren’t for noticing it, i wouldve never known i had ever seen one. I will get a picture eventually, but not for a while. Every now and then i remember seeing an alarm and trying to remember it. This is why i regret not taking pictures.
You seem to have gotten a touch off-topic, Vibratone Horn. Yes, it’s not good to not know where a pull station is, I wouldn’t make a point of knowing where every pull station in a building is. I mean, they’re bright red, so they’re not that hard to notice. However, not noticing the alarms themselves is a little bit extreme. I can’t imagine a complete stranger walking up to me and saying “Aw yeah, that’s a pretty sweet Siemens U-HNH-MCS right there. You know, Wheelock sued Siemens over strobe synchronization…” or something like that, unless they know me and my fire alarm interest.
But back on topic, if you can’t notice the simple fact that a loud horn or speaker is sounding, and bright strobes are flashing, it is your fault if you get hurt in an emergency. You had fair warning and did not take advantage of that warning. I can tell you for a fact, if a fire alarm would be sounding, I would be the first to evacuate.
I think that all that is needed is for each building to have an adequate number of assigned fire wardens (i.e. 1 for every 20-30 people). Usually, when an alarm goes off, people might be confused, since it may be a sound they’ve never head before. Even with a voice message, people will usually wait for someone to tell them to leave. The problem is, no one wants to be that person who is singled out. As they say, "When in Rome, do what the Romans do."With a fire warden, their job is to, when a fire alarm sounds, to go to each area and instruct patrons to evacuate, and to make sure that nobody is left behind.
Another idea would be to have a live speaker announce the evacuation over the PA system, intercom, or EVAC system. The person would have to first grab their attention, announce their authority (the higher authority, the better), and tell them where to and how to evacuate. For example:
“Attention Wal-Mart shoppers, may I have your attention, please… This is the store manager. We have received a fire alarm, and the fire department has been alerted. At this time, all shoppers are being asked to leave the building immediately using the nearest fire exit. Do not proceed to check out to purchase your items. All associates please initiate Code Red procedures. Thank you for your co-operation.”
That’s actually pretty smart. However, instead of a manager having to walk over to the panel to make the announcement, he should record that announcement and set the panel to play that as the default evacuation message, instead of the generic one.
That would be more efficient, but it would just be another voice EVAC system and people would ignore it. Plus EVAC systems cost more. But still that is a good idea.
Instead of hearing a generic voice that just tells them to leave, they’ll hear a “real” person (I say it in quotes because someone has to voice the message)
And voice evacuation is beginning to get cheaper, with the release of newer technologies like self-amplified speakers and low-consumption LED strobes (I’m looking at you, Wheelock)
I wouldn’t mind being the person that voices the voice evac. Would be pretty simple.
“Attention please. Attention please. I SAID ATTENTION! There has been a fire reported in the building. Please get out. I SAID GET OUT!”
:mrgreen:
A better solution would be to switch all new applications to bells or bell/strobes, preferably set to continuous.
People are used to bells from TV, and they commonly associate it with fire alarms.
Canada seems to do that in international buildings, like airports.
My Dad repairs printers and photocopiers for a living, so he has been caught in schools during fire drills, lockdowns, and bomb threats before, and he is used to hearing a bell.
I remember when we were at this hotel a few years ago, I was in the pool, and the alarms (Simplex 2901-9838/4903-9105 and a 4903-9217 in continuous) went off, I told him we should evacuate, and he insisted it was a “panic alarm” Just before I became a panic alarm, they shut it off, and the alarms stopped after a 3-second audible silence. My grandma was in the casino at the time, and she mentioned the sound to a fellow gambler, who asked security. Security told her that everything was fine. However, my grandma still didn’t have a clue that it was a fire alarm! :lol:
This takes me to another solution. If the building has a large security staff, they don’t even need to worry about putting in an EVAC system, as long as the security staff is efficient in searching for danger and evacuating the building/area if necessary. Or, smaller buildings could just have fire wardens to do this job only in case of fire!
Ohhhhh boy
I’m sensing your feelings of dissappointment or frustration… :mrgreen:
To respond to Honk108:
If it says “FIRE” on the device, and it’s going off, don’t you think that it’s a fire alarm? Most bells aren’t marked unless they are on strobe plates, so why would you use them as “modern” fire safety devices? Plus, horns use up less current, allowing more devices to be installed on one circuit.
And why continuous? Temporal-3 has been a standard for fire evacuation since the late 90’s. It’s also the same pattern a smoke alarm has, so if people hear the smoke alarms in their house, they’ll associate it with smoke or fire. It also provides a nice brisk tempo for walking, just like 120 BPM march time. I think other musicians will understand this more than non-musicians, but if you set a metronome to 120 and walk to the beat, you’ll find it’s pretty quick, in fact quite a bit faster than a normal walking pace. I should make a video of this: set a metronome to 120, play a generic Code 3, and clap to the met just to get my point across.
Just my two cents.
The alarm systems themselves don’t need to be changed, people just need to be more educated on how to respond to a fire alarm. In addition to just schools, every building should take part in random fire drills. That way, for example in a WalMart, the employees will know how to respond by alerting the shoppers of the situation and helping them to evacuate the building. Also, since the drills are random, people will respond to any alarm, and not just those occurring on planned fire drill days.
Well, it would be annoying to have to evacuate Walmart during the middle of shopping, especially if you had frozens. It would be for safety, but I’m sure most shoppers would just go “Oh well, we have the smoke alarm on. Where is the butter aisle again?”
Sorry for stereotype Walmart shopper (no offence to anybody who is a stereotype Walmart shopper), but it’s better than “The fire alarm is currently in an alarm state. Let’s continue shopping at this fine establishment”
A fire alarm sounding is a serious situation, not just an “annoyance”. Plus, which would you rather risk, your life or some frozen pizza?