What are some things that the General Public misconceives about Fire Alarms that drive you crazy?

Well technically all water is drinkable…

At least once

Another one I’ve heard, Exit signs are smoke detectors. Doesn’t make much sense but I’ve heard it :joy:

That is because the water sits the sprinkler pipes for years

Surprised the alarms didn’t go off. Wouldn’t a flow or pressure switch trigger the alarm after a while? (Maybe it did. I couldn’t tell because of the quality.)

They generally do, but most of them have a slight delay on them to prevent water fluctuations from setting off the alarm prematurely. Most flow switches have a field-selectable retard setting that can be set up to 90 seconds. Pressure switches on alarm check valves may also have a delay, but an alarm check valve will also have a retard chamber on it for this purpose as well.

1 Like

The misconception about one sprinkler activating setting off the rest isn’t entirely false. @BousaiGuy made a video about fire alarms in Taiwan, and if the water pressure got too low (by an automatic sprinkler or a valve,) other sprinkler jets turn on.

Some Common Misconceptions at my school. @MrFireAlarm would know about these.

  1. People calling NA’s “Fire Drills”. This is mostly done by teachers and students.
  2. People thinking that the old home economics shutoff button is for the fire alarm system. One kid called it a fire drill Aswell.
  3. A student once thought that the Wheelock NS’s detect smoke.
  4. One student argued with me about how the Emergency Lights flash during fire alarm activations. I won after we had a fire drill later that period and the Emergency Lights didn’t flash.
  5. The common misconception about suppression systems.
  6. Someone thought that lockdown tones came out of Fire Alarm NA’s.
  7. This annoys me the most. My school has a burglar protection system for when the school is closed at night. Someone thought the motion sensors were smoke detectors. Everyone also thinks they are cameras for some reason.

No. 2 is a shutoff? I thought it was a Lockdown Button (Probably because the Lockdown button looks identical to that one.)

I guess I’m part of the misconception…

I guess so from what I have heard, not sure why a lockdown button would be in that room. Someone thought it was a fire Alarm which was the main misconception.

Ehh, what activated is more of a foam fire suppression system. It’s initiated by a single sprinkler head, but the flow from the water (I don’t know if it’s the reduction in static pressure or an increase in flow) causes a valve to open and trip the foam system.

Pressure drop might be the answer.
According to the description, it’s likely that this foam system is controlled by a deluge valve whose control chamber is connected to certain amount of heat-sensitive sprinklers. When the fire breaks out, one of the sprinklers pop, the control chamber loses its pressure, and an diaphragm or clapper inside the deluge valve opens under the pressure difference, allowing fresh water to flow into the foam generator. Then it comes the bubbly downpour!

1 Like

pretty late to this one but one misconception that I have heard is that the pull station is what makes the noise and the N/A is a smoke detector Don’t they see the flashing light!?

2 Likes

I don’t know if this is listed, but every time the system goes off, they call it a drill.

And calling fire alarms themselves fire drills

1 Like

In our school they have the cup style cameras in the back of the classrooms that are only incidentally put in the back from covid 19 virtual. Now they use them to find cheating students during tests on their phones. :iphone:
IMG_6932

I don’t think cameras that do recording are allowed in classrooms in most places. At least none of the schools I went too ever had such cameras in any classrooms.

I don’t think they record, but who knows

Well, not exactly. It IS, however, possible to activate a fire suppression system via smoke detector or pull station.

“It ain’t a soap dispenser filled with ink, people, it’s a Fire Alarm Pull Station!”
Now say that with a texas accent.