Strangest Names/Nicknames for Fire Alarms

What are some of the strangest things you’ve heard a fire alarm device called by a non-fire alarm enthusiast?

I have a friend who calls notification appliances “fire signs”, and I once had a teacher who would refer to them as “fire drills”. I’ve also heard “pullers” and “buttons” for pull stations. What are some other crazy names for fire alarms?

I once heard of a secretary who referred to the FACP as ‘the box’.

I mean, it kind of is… :lol:

people at my school refer to the horns as buzzers and strobes as lights or flashers. I’ve once heard someone during what I like to call 9fun8Homecoming4Incident6 (aka cloud machine set off fire alarm at homecoming becuase no one was thinking), refer to the strobes as “strobe lights.”

you were close, my dude. you were

Strobes can be called strobe lights, too. Both are fine.

I had a professor at my college refer to the TrueAlert speaker/strobe in the classroom as a siren, which isn’t that far off because that’s the sound it makes. “Bells and sirens” was the sound of the fire alarm according to several teachers in New Britain. We had -9838’s :roll:. I also had another one who thought all the noise came from the disconnected Edwards Adaptahorns because they said “FIRE HORN”.

A firefighter friend of mine (who’s a tad into fire alarms) referred to a notification appliance as a “head” like a smoke detector head. I guess it’s just their parlance, but still kinda weird to someone who knows them as NA’s or signals.

Anyone who calls fire alarm devices “fire drills” gets on my nerves. I don’t expect you to know about fire alarms, but you should know what the word “drill” means.

Yeah. A false alarm evacuation or a real emergency evacuation is not a “fire drill”. I’ve heard even teachers use “fire drill” in those situations.

When I was younger and for the longest time I would end up calling the alarm itself a “drill” though to be fair back then I didn’t know anything about them other than they make loud unpleasant noises.

I can see how in certain cases, especially for elementary-level teachers, it’s better to refer to unplanned evacuations as fire drills. That way, you can minimize confusion and the anxiety associated with a real fire or evacuation. I know that’s protocol in my district for these situations.

Kind of off topic here, but this sounds like something from a George Carlin bit. “Some time in my life, ‘false alarms’ became ‘unplanned evacuations.’ I wasn’t notified of this.”

But I digress.

I remember once at school this year in math class, I was looking at the fire alarm on the wall in the classroom (integrity horn only) and this girl who was sitting next to me asked what I was looking at. I told her I was looking at the fire alarm horn on the wall. She told me that I was wrong and that it was a smoke detector and that the sound comes out of the PA system. :roll:

If it were me, I’d dare her to put her ear up to it during the next announced fire drill.

Great time to tell her “You must be new here! That thing is a blowhorn,” :lol: :lol:

Had a locksmith who was making me a key for my MS-2 call it a “fire box”. Not exactly wrong but still funny nonetheless.

Haha, good one

Not to mention that the integrities are set on high volume continuous :shock: :shock:

[insert 30 ok-hand emojis]