This happens all the time at our school towards the beginning of the year. The alarms are so annoying when it’s the 6th coming, but I guess it’s better because we get a half hour of fresh air. My school is more laid back when it comes to fire alarms so everyone’s talking or on their phones when going out. LOT better than Elementary-Middle school.
I don’t know why the alarm system malfunctions at the start of the school year. It’s confirmed that none of them are drills, their either false alarms or someone burned food in cooking class again.
Everyone is relaying stories of drills, false or, actual alarms. While I don’t have such a tail, I do have a “worst.”
At work as an electronics mechanic, we run an almost dirty smoke test at each school about every month. Most of the fire panels are Simplex of various models. The test catches smokes which are nearing a point at which the panel can’t compensate. At the end of the test, the panel needs to be reset.
On one such test, the 4020 panel wouldn’t reboot after the test. I installed the one spare board we had at the shop and transfered the building profile and program chips to it.
The “worst” part was when I called Simplex to order a board to replace the shop stock, they said that it was no longer available. (We have a lot of 4020s.)
Which brings up this question:
Does anyone know where I can send the bad one for repair?
When I was in 6th grade, we had a false fire alarm. A student pulled the alarm with his shoulder (Edwards 270-SPO), and I was going to my classroom (it was after recess), and all of a sudden I hear EST Genesis horn/strobes in high volume, code 3. I turn to the horn/strobe behind me, it’s flashing! Everyone was pacing around the hallway and thinking it was real. We were all out there for about half an hour, and then the fire dept. arrived. They reset the alarm panel (Vigilant VS1), and we went back in.
In 5th grade, we had a fire drill planned, and they forgot to call the alarm company so the fire dept wouldn’t come when the alarm went off. Anyway, we were doing our spelling class, and then at exactly 2:30, we hear the sound of Wheelock MBS-G10-24 bell/strobes and we all head out there. When the alarm stopped ringing, we hear a fire truck! Everyone thought it was real, but it turns out it was not. My teacher kept saying that they came to practice with us, but it became clear it was not when the principal told me.
My sophomore year in high school, when there was a problem with their fire alarm system. It suddenly went off during lunch! I was already having a rough day, and during lunch I was sitting near a Simplex 4040 horn, when they suddenly went off and I screamed, like a little girl! (When I was 15 I could still scream just like a girl. Pathetic, huh?) Other students started laughing around me before a paraprofessional teacher came and dragged me outside (not literally), and then after the all-clear was given and everyone went inside I was still a total wreck and I almost got suspended for my meltdown! Without a doubt, that was the worst day of my entire life.
Sounds like school to me. If you’re having a tough time, the adults are going to make sure it’s even tougher on you - at least as much as the kids are.
Oh yes. Another instance of teachers making it rough in a fire alarm was when I was in fourth grade. We were just leaving the cafetorium when the fire alarm went off (old-style Federal Vibratone 450 horns), and instead of going out the closest exit, the teachers led our class ALL THE WAY DOWN THE HALL as the alarms continued sounding, all the way to the other side of the building and out the main entrance. That was truly a bad idea. It was bad enough I had to suffer hearing those alarms inside the building for a very prolonged period of time, but suppose there was a real fire that was on the way to the main entrance or our regular classroom? Then again, the staff in this school wasn’t the best, and I’ve heard it has gotten worse after I graduated.
at the school I currently go to, it’s an old EST2 system, with EST genesis horn-strobes, and in January this year, just after we got back from Christmas break, something with the sprinkler system malfunctioned, and set the alarms off, in the middle of lunch, when they would never do a drill. I immediately knew it was not a drill as the fire department came. I think it might be related to the fact that in January we were dealing with the heaters in the building not working, possibly due to frozen pipes. all the classrooms felt like you were in a refrigerator/freezer.
My worst/most traumatic experience with fire alarms would have to be in my daycare/preschool/church building. The building had what I am guessing was a Simplex 4002 or 4005 with Wheelock NS’s on continuous, high volume and Wheelock rss’. Around 2013, they were doing some remodeling and upgraded to some sort of Simplex addressable system (I’m guessing a 4010 or 4100es). They kept the Wheelock devices but for some reason they decided to put them on the ceiling in the remodeled areas. They also added TrueAlert’s to the outside of the building and inside the church which previously had no fire protection. While they were doing the remodeling and installing the new system over the summer, I was in daycare. They had us on the 3rd floor which was a part of the building with the NS’s that was not getting remodeled at that time. The fire alarm had already gone off falsely a couple of times in the previous days due to the work downstairs. We were walking down the stairs to the gym for some fun activities when one of my classmates decided it was a great idea to pull the fire alarm. The alarms went off and we went outside. The NS’s were so loud that they could clearly be heard outside pretty far away from the building over the sound of kids screaming, cars driving by, and the outdoor TrueAlert’s. This was definitely an experience I’ll never forget and is also the first fire alarm experience I ever had.
