i went to a zoo under renovation, and the simplex TrueAlerts were flashing. my dad thought it a real alarm.
What are your fire alarm stories? What I mainly mean by that, is, what happened when you have been somewhere and the fire alarm sounded? Here are 2 of my stories.
#1: Hospital, Winfield, IL. My brother had to have his tonsils taken out, and he needed to see a doctor at this hospital before the operation a few days after. He and my Mom went back to the doctor’s room, while I waited in the waiting room of the office. I was reading the boring magazines in the waiting room bin, when suddenly, the Wheelock E70 speaker/strobe in the waiting room began flashing and chiming. After a few chimes, a custom, automated voice came on saying something like: “Code red Code Red”. And then it said a specific building in the hospital complex that was not our building. A few other people I was sitting near and across from, suggested evacuating, but the receptionist at the desk informed us that it would not be necessary. Finally, the system had gone into audible silence and with the strobe still flashing, we all made small jokes about it. The system was returned to normal about 6 minutes after the silence. My brother and my Mom had only seen the RSS strobe that was in the back office. After the appointment, I heard people mumbling about how it was just some burnt food in the cafeteria.
#2: Medical Center, Rockford, IL. My Grandpa had hurt his leg and was put in a medical center about a block from my Aunt’s house for about a month. I was in Grandpa’s room with 2 of my Aunts talking to my Grandpa about life and such. My other Aunt was with my 2 younger cousins in the church part of the center, and my cousin was having a little fun with the piano (with permission from the front desk). While talking to Grandpa, I suddenly heard EST Genesis horn/strobes out in the hallway, and the slam of fire doors closing. At the same time, an automated announcement came over the PA saying some random number followed by “Code red” and “Fire”. The nurse popped in and let us know all the patient rooms had to be closed. We continued the conversation between the 4 of us. About 10 minutes later, the system was silenced and the EST Genesis strobe in the room continued to flash. I then peeked out into the hallway right as the EST2 system was fully reset. The fire doors were propped back open, and the ordeal was over. An announcement came over the PA saying sorry, and that it was a false smoke detector activation. They mentioned something about burnt popcorn. I never even heard the fire department, and I don’t think they showed up.
In both of situations, I was too nervous to pull out the camera and film, and in the first, I didn’t yet have anything to film on. Feel free to let me know what you think of these stories, and I would love to hear your fire alarm stores! 
#1 Albertson’s Gocery Store: It was after school and I was with my dad. He and I were getting food to make dinner that night. IDK who but an employee came over the loud speaker and said that the fire alarm system was going to be tested. Sure enough, the System Sensor SpectrAlert P241575’s went of in temporal all over the store. And this wasn’t just an ordinary Albertson’s. It was literally a warehouse painted green with a bit of drywall, shelves, and freezers. So the alarms were placed above things like the florist counter, the “butcher block” and the restrooms.
That’s all I have at this time. If I have anymore, I’ll be sure to post them here!
Too many to list…
Nice. And yeah, that’s fine. LOL.
I can name tons, but I have a couple ones off my list that are somewhat interesting 
-
I remember a fire drill we had in Grade 4 at my school. It went perfectly fine, that is until the end of the drill. We were outside for some time, and teachers were starting to look through the doors and see what the holdup was. The bells gave an all clear, but as we entered, the fire bells were still going. We had found out that the office was having troubles resetting the fire alarm system (Edwards 6500 at the time). So the fire bells kept going on and off for about 5-10 minutes, until I think they had reset it fully, or just left the alarms silent. The principal came on the PA and was not impressed with the way the staff were coming up to the doors and windows during the fire drill.
-
The other story happened at my workplace. It was a busy Saturday night, as usual. I ended up having to go roll cutlery in the staff room. I was doing so, and all of a sudden, I hear a bell. At first I thought it was from the back entrance (we have a doorbell), until I looked back on the wall and noticed it was the fire bell back there. I pretty much jumped out of my seat, and went into the kitchen to see what was going on. Apparently, no one but me really knew what that sound was. One of my managers told me it was a false alarm, and I told her that I could handle it and silence the panel and stuff. So, I went to the electrical room, and silenced the alarms first. The panel we have is a Mircom 1025T. Our system does a slightly fast code 3. I then got a small screwdriver, and went to reset the pull station that was pulled in the front lobby, a Mirtone 73303. We called off the fire trucks as best we could (theres a fire station just down the street from us). And after, I went and reset the panel. In the end, my manager had asked me how I knew how to do all the stuff, in which I told her it was an interest of mine, which she thought was pretty cool actually!
That’s cool. I wonder in the second story, who pulled the fire alarm.
Is this even legal?
All I know is that someone got banned from DFA for saying that… But I highly doubt anyone here really cares! 8)
In some places it is legal for a owner/manager of a building to silence/reset an alarm.
I was there. This is probably different though; in the other incident, he silenced it at a school (or church or something) without any supervisor saying so.
Excluding fire drills, I’ve only been in a building twice when the alarm has gone off.
1: A fog machine at a halloween party at my church tripped the alarm system. We all had to evacuate the building a wait for the fire department to come turn off the alarms. I was really young at the time, so that’s all I really remember of that night, but needless to say, there has never been a fog machine at a halloween party again. 
2: Once again, I was pretty young when this happened, so I don’t remember that much, but I was at Safeway with my mom, and the alarms (SpectrAlert Classics) started to go off. People were making their way towards the door, when a manager came over the intercom and announced that it was a false alarm, so we kept shopping, even though the alarms were still going off for a while after that.
True.
Here you can post any experiences you had with fire alarms in hotels. It can be from drills, tests, false alarms, malfunctions, to actual fires. (Or anything else you can think of)
Once I was about to go swimming at my hotel and all of a sudden, the trualerts go off and scare me. We walked outside and the fire department came. The arms stopped and I was shaking so much. Someone came to my dad and said it happened once a month when someone overcooked popcorn. The hotel must have gotten annoyed because every microwave says how long to cook popcorn.
My mom and I were once at a Health Quest and I was in the children’s room. All I remember was my mom picking me up and walking outside with I think classic Spectralerts sounding
When I was volunteering at a Savers one time in the pouring rain, the fire alarms went off for some reason. They were Wheelock ASs.
Hotel I was at while I was in Florida went off right as I was getting ready to go to bed. I was on a Florida vacation with my grandparents. Horns were a mix of 4051s on projectors, 4040s and Simplex GX-90 horns. Oh, and we were on the 20th floor.
What is The Forum That Shall Not Be Named and how come we can’t name is?
It’s a different forum that has some issues.
Here you can post any experience you had when you drove by a place where the fire alarms were activated.