Your first opportunities to hear a specific fire alarm

Fire Alarm General Discussion
21

Sorry to update a thread like this, but I thought I’d list my first opprotutities off hearing specific alarm types (there are also some new members on the board that could add to this too):

Some time in late 1993/early 1994: I heard the first fire alarm I’ve ever heard in my life: a Simplex 4051 horn on a 4050-80 light plate in 20bpm March Time.

December 1994: First time I heard a horn in Continuous and with no visual notifiation (Fire-Lite 450 horns)

October 12, 2000: First time I heard the very loud flush-mount Federal Signal horns at my middle school.

October 4, 2002: First time I heard the even louder Simplex 4040s at my high school!

October 23, 2007: First time I ever heard an electronic fire alarm horn (a SAE VA4 horn/strobe in Continuous)

August 29, 2008: First time I got to hear a voice-evacuation fire alarm system (Simplex 4003 voice panel tied into a 4010 panel with TrueAlert speaker/strobes)

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'91 - I started kindergarten. That ES was built in 1975. I forget what the fire alarms were, but I remember being afraid of the noise. I think they might’ve been horns, probably either Simplex 4040s or 4050s, or Edwards 360s. The class bells were either Simplex/Faraday or Edwards 6" bells. I think they were mounted behind a flush-mount grille. That was my first time hearing a bell. Those were VERY loud in some of the smaller hallways.

'94 - the first fire drill for me in my 2nd ES, built in 1991. I was in 2nd grade. I don’t know what the panel was, but it had a Simplex system. The NAs were -9838s on 4903 strobe retrofit plates. This is the first drill I remember having and the first time I heard 9838s. Not too loud.

'97 - I was in 5th grade, in MS, which was actually 2 buildings connected together. One building, built in 1953, had Standard Electric 4-350 horns on Standard retrofit light plates, the same one wile_e2005 posted on the alarms at work/school thread. The other building, built in '56, had Standard 30A horns. That year was my first time hearing those horns. Those were loud as hell, especially the 30As.

'99 - I was in 8th grade, which at the time was the start of HS. That was built in '69, and they had an Edwards system with flush-mounted 360s. That was the 1st time I remember hearing those horns. Those were loud,but not as loud as the Standard horns from MS.
That year was also my first time hearing a voice evac system (it was a Simplex, with a code-4 horn tone) That wasn’t loud at all.

'00 - My HS was being renovated, so 9th grade was in the old MS building from '53 that year (the 2 buildings are now separated, and MS is now only in the '56 building, which was renovated in '99) The Standard horns were replaced with horizontal Wheelock ASs. That was my first time hearing an electronic horn (the AS) They must’ve been set on low, as they weren’t very loud at all.
That year I also heard the older MIZ horns for the first time, in a hotel room. That was loud.

'01 - I heard Wheelock NSs for the first time (in the MS. Those were loud.
Also that year was my first time hearing either a CP U-MHST or U-MMT in code 3 horn. Those were EXTREMELY loud!

'04 - the first time I heard either SAE 2DCDs or Simplex 9806s behind SAE retrofit plates. Those were also loud as hell

'07 - the first time hearing Gentex Commander 2s, in mechanical code 3. Those were also loud as hell.

I haven’t heard any new alarms in person since then.

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In 2007 and, In 4th grade, I got to hear Spectralerts and Simplex 4903-9405 in Continuous.
(School was built in 1998)

In 2009, In 4th grade, I got to hear EST Genesis Remote Horn and EST Integrity Remote Horn in Code-3
I had to do 4th grade two times. (Reason: Because I wasn’t old enough)

24

Not old enough? That doesn’t make sense.

25

He was probably younger than everyone in his class. I had to do Kindergarten twice because of that reason.

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Yes perhaps kindergarten, that is actually very common. Even more so in if the school has a kindergarten program and its a private some parents will do that so they get in when a spot opens so they do not miss it.

But fourth grade would mean that he was either always to young to keep moving up or he moved and was placed in the wrong grade. So you repeated EVERYTHING because you were two young? My guess is someone wasn’t to honest. I think you were probably held back.

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Someone in my 2nd grade class was held back for the same reason.

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Wow, I didn’t realize they actually make children repeat grades for that reason, and I don’t think it’s fair if you passed the grade fair and square. At the very least, they could give you a year off. I know I was just barely under the cutoff for kindergarten at the time I started, and I think a few years later I wouldn’t have made it. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t have been such a bad thing, since I did always feel like I was behind my peers in some ways.

29

Okay, here we go…

-Edwards 802 Strobe with whatever horn it goes with- Moore Elementary School, first fire drill in preschool
-Gentex GX Horn/Strobe- Oak View Elementary School, my first fire drill in kindergarden.
*Can these be on continuous, cause I seem to remember them originally that way, then switching to code-3 in 3rd grade.
-Spectr Alert Horn Strobe, march time - Oak View Elementary School, I don’t remember when, it was a test, not a drill.
-Gentex Commander 1 on code 3- Heritage Middle School, first fire drill 6th grade
-Gentex GX speaker strobe (I think…)- Heritage Middle School, fire alarm work, it was during track in the gym in 6th grade
-Edwards Horn Strobe (integrity strobe, with older horn, don’t know name)- Franklin YMCA, probably 10 or 15 years ago.
-Simplex 2902?-9838 (9838 horn with newer strobe than 2901), on continuous- Super 8 Motel, Franklin, IN
-Simplex True Alert with gentex style mini strobes in rooms- Holiday Inn Express Greenwood, IN at Christmas one year
-Simplex 4903 series (i think speaker strobe b/c of panel, but only heard beeps)- Perdido Place, my grandma’s condo in Orange Beach, AL over spring break maybe 5 or 6 years ago.
-Simplex 9838 horn behind retrofitted light plate, I beleive march time- Christ Presbyterian academy, i was a at a play, someone pulled the alarm for fun.

I think this is everything I’ve heard, if i think of something else, I’ll post it. Isn’t it ironic i’ve never heard a voice evac before?

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Sometime when I was young (I don’t remember when)- Gentex Commander 2s.*
I got to hear SpecterAlerts at a Safeway*
Preschool-got to here a Simplex 2901-9838 for the first time.
Third grade-I got to hear Simplex TrueAlerts and Wheelock MTs for the first time.
*Indicates I’m not sure of the exact time
That’s all I can think of in exception of all the alarms from my collection.

31

When I got my wheelock MT, that was the first time I heard it in person.

After watching videos, I fuigured it wasn’t too loud so I just put it on continuous horn , not knowing I set it on high volume and I hooked it up to 12VDC, flipped the switch and…

Well lets just say I now dont trust videos as to how quiet alarms are!

(for those who dont get it, it was friggin L O U D ! and scared me and my poor cat (who is now dead :cry: ) half to death!)

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I took a hard look through the past 5 years of “hold backs” at the school where my office is located. I can not find one single student held back because of age. They are all due to issues relating to academics.

How would you feel if you were held back because you did not do well in the class and all your friends are moving ahead. You would feel stupid and when your friends find out they wouldn’t make it to easy on you either.

Most students held back at a young age are held back because of an undiagnosed learning or behavior disability that effects their learning such as dyslexia or ADHD. Most of these kids are just labeled as bad students unless the school has the ability to or the parents take the initiative to have the child diagnosed.

There are students in high school that should still be in middle school and students in college that should still be in high school… Hell once and a while a VERY gifted middle school aged student is dumped in AP high school classes.

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Probably 1997: In daycare, I heard my first fire alarm for my first fire drill: A FOS 6120 on an SAE A34 strobe in continuous.

It was a quite while back, but I remember them telling us it was going to sound like “the firefighters were coming”, so I expected a siren, but they obviously were referring to the air horns.

Probably 1998: I was in another part of the building when the alarm went off (the same part of the building in my “False Alarm” video on youtube). This time I learned that the alarms in the hallway sounded different (they were about two notes higher and the hallway made them echo).

2002: We had two fire drills on the first Friday of 2nd grade. This school had Simplex 2901-9838’s on 4903-9101 plates.

In a newer section of the school, we had 4903-9219’s. Since all of the alarms I’ve heard up to this point sounded similar, I assumed that all fire alarms were a constant buzzer.

I was also curious about the alarms in the gym and auditorium (which were 2902-9711’s on 4903-9101 plates), so I asked multiple people. Some people told me that they sounded like most of the alarms, but louder, and other people told me that they broadcasted voice messages (I didn’t believe the strange idea that fire alarms could “speak”). But later that year, we had a fire drill during music class, which was in the auditorium at the time, and surely enough, a stutter tone followed by the default simplex message blasted out of the loudspeakers. This event helped spark my interest.

2006/2007: I first heard electronic horns during multiple brief false alarms at an Applebees (the smoke detectors had bad allergies). They were classic SpectrAlerts on mechanical code-3.

I also heard Wheelock NS’s coming from a Chinese Restaurant after leaving Stop & Shop.

2009: I heard mini-horns for the first time (Gentex GX-90S’s), and heard TrueAlerts for the first time.

2010: During the second December 1’st false alarm, I heard march time for the first time.

All of the other opportunities to hear fire alarms in my collection.

34

Last semester in school, there was a Wheelock Mt in the Health room and, since at the time I didn’t know MTs are multi-tone, I thought it was all on Code-3 and the last time I heard an alarm in code-3 was in 3rd grade (it was a Specteralert), so I was dying to hear it. There was a fire drill in Health and I was so happy to hear it go off.

35

You know you just bumped a 4-year-old topic, right?

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I was dying to hear the voice evac system setup in my school’s gymnasium building. Thanks to some kid to “fell” against a pull station, that was possible.

37

well your nice :lol:

38

What do you mean?

39

you said that you thank the person that fell on the fire alarm

40

No he didn’t.
Given the context and usage, he was granting credit, not thanks, and heavily implied that that’s not what happened.