Remembering False Fire Alarms

though funny now, but back in 1997, during the winter/spring season of the school year our fire alarms went off during the now outdated SAT but for some reason the fire alarms at 2:00 for a whole week kept sounding, we had Wheelocks and some heat detectors and they kept tripping so we had to evacuate outside into the cold, by the 3rd day we just grabbed our coats and waited for the alarm to sound which did and the sirens would sound (vol fire dept) come up and be angry cause they don’t get paid for leaving their jobs when on a fire call.

It turned out that the heat detectors in the new gym were being blasted with heat from the heaters causing all this trouble.

Anyone have a memory like that? Please share

I remember December 1, 2011 at my high school. We were supposed to have a fire drill (which I was going to get to pull), but it was cancelled due to rain.

Then, before 8th period, the -9219s started going off during passing time. I believe the fire department ended up showing up, too. But they let us back in pretty quickly.

I arrived at math class mildly wet, but another student fell in the mud. I asked what happened, and it turns out that a student had decided to pull the alarm as a prank.

The next period, a study hall, we heard a faint drone in the hallway. Uh-oh. It happened again. This time we got to wait in the steel pavilion outside of the wood shop, thank goodness. Another kid decided to do a copycat crime.

The next day, the principal came on over the school TV to have a stern talk with everyone about the two false alarms as well as a fight that had broken out during a lunch period.

The faintness of the alarm the second time was due to a broken -9219 outside the classroom, which I notified the main office about.

One time in third grade, one of the heaters began smoking and it set off the fire alarm during a massive rainstorm so we were all forced to go outside during the downpour and stand there until the fire department (which was next door to the school but it always took them some time to get to the school which I thought was weird) came and then they had to figure out which heater it was and it took a long time to reset the alarms before we could go back in. I think it was somewhere around 45 minutes we were outside huddling under trees and umbrellas.

I remember during third grade, we had two false alarms in November. The second was the third time the alarm went off that month, so I knew it must be false. In both cases, I believe the alarm was triggered in the kitchen. Then later that year (April or May?), someone pulled the alarm. We were outside for quite a long time with the alarm continuously blaring - listening to the 7002T outside got REALLY annoying after a while. The principal came on the PA system afterwards to say “What we just had was a false alarm, somebody PULLED IT!”, before going on to talk of the consequences of such action.

The alarm was also pulled twice during my eighth grade year, both times shortly after dismissal. I was in the new wing men’s room both times, with a V7001T right outside the door - definitely made you jump. The first time, principal addressed the behavior during morning announcements the next day; this principal had a more calm but still intimidating demeanor. That time, a rowdy group of 7th graders had exited the bathroom a few moments before the alarm went off, so I have a feeling one of them did it.

I remember in seventh grade, we had a “surprise” fire drill. Everybody thought it was a fire drill, until about thirty seconds after we came outside when the fire department came rolling up, sirens and all. Turns out, one of the smoke heads was faulty and triggered an alarm. I think it may have been a TrueAlarm variant? Not 100% sure but I know the entire school was Simplex.

In high school we never had anybody pull the alarms because there were stoppers over the alarms in the main building and the modular building and Aquaculture building were each so small that you wouldn’t be able to get out of there fast enough if you pulled a station in those buildings so anytime we had a false alarm, everybody blamed the culinary shop and would say that they burned something. XD

I recall a few such occasions in elementary school…
[]In Kindergarten, we we had a false fire alarm as a result of the system malfunctioning. I recall my class was in another class when the alarms went off, we followed the routine and went to our assigned areas. After the alarms shut off they rang the all clear signal, we proceeded back to the building, but as we were doing so they went off again and we had to repeat the procedure a number of times. I’m sure after I left with my mom they made an announcement to disregard the fire alarms. It went off the next day during the school’s carnival too!
[
]I remember once in third grade while a Reading Counts party was being held, the system had malfunctioned (we had a fire drill the day before), and we ended up going out as we always did for drills. I believe we were out there for quite sometime before the all-clear bell was sounded and they let us inside. Afterwards the Principal came on the PA and said that we did a great fire drill even though they were having problems with the alarm.

On several occasions throughout elementary school we would have false alarms… when I was in first grade (also the first year that my school was open), we had three false alarms that I can recall. One was after a smoke detector activated in the teachers lounge, while the other two were activated by different kids in the kindergarten bathrooms (eventually, this pull station was removed, along with three other “commonly” pulled pull stations).
The other one that sticks out was one year later in second grade at about 6:30 AM. Apparently one of the lights in the cafeteria started smoking, which activated one of the smoke detectors. I still remember pulling up to school at about 7:00 that morning to see the entire front of the parking lot filled with fire trucks and ambulances. In the end, everything was fine, but for several days there was a really strong electrical smell in the cafeteria. Between 2nd and 8th grade, we had at least one person pull the fire alarm each year, but most of the time it was pretty routine. In 4th or 5th grade, someone chose the absolute most obvious time to pull a fire alarm (one day after a drill, in a thunderstorm, during lunch). We actually didn’t have to evacuate that time, because the conditions outside were severe and the principal was 99% sure she knew who pulled the alarm.
In high school, we don’t really have false alarms. That’s probably due to the fact that there are no pull stations in the public areas of the building and there are only maybe six functioning smoke detectors throughout the school. Believe me, we’ve had fires, they just haven’t set off the fire alarm system.

Oof, that sounds like a major code violation. Did the system get inspected?

I mean… I don’t think it’s been inspected since I’ve been there. When I looked it up online it looked like the last inspection was in 2013 (although I’m assuming the new system was inspected when it was installed two summers ago). I also haven’t mentioned this, but out of the few smoke detectors throughout the school, a few still have dust covers left over from construction… thats been complete for like six months now.

Well I guess that smoke detector is no longer a TRUE alarm anymore :lol:

That’s the joke

I know it’s the joke, I just wanted to make it more clearer

Yeah I should’ve been a bit clearer. My bad.

Nah, the joke was pretty clear :lol:

Last year was my first year of high school. And during one lunch, the fire alarms (Edwards integrities) went off while I was in the library eating lunch. Apparently, a faulty smoke detector is what set the alarms off. The funny thing is that a day later, one of the janitors gave me that smoke detector because I told the custodial staff about my hobby before. I was able to fix the detector and now it is being used on my system.

What was wrong with it?

I think it had something to do with the head of the detector. The detector itself is from 1997, so it was pretty old. Another thing may be that it activated because of dust. When I received it, it was really dusty and dirty. I guess giving it a good cleaning fixed it

Literally just had a false alarm. Not sure what it was right now, I might ask maintenance if they know what caused it. Lasted about 3 minutes, got pretty surprised by the horn/strobe in the classroom since I was directly under it.

Funny thing about it is that the entire system is Simplex SmartSync, but the horns went off first thing instead of strobes going off for a few seconds for everything to sync up. I’ve seen a lot of videos of Simplex systems running the strobes and sounder bases for a few seconds before running the horns.

Actually, it can have some that sound the horns immediately while the others in the system do what you described, it happened in my middle school to where there were a few classrooms that the horns went off immediately.