Fire alarm... Run... Stay.

Rabies

At lunch time today the fire alarm in my aparment building went off.
Really load annoying siren and "please evacuate the building" repeated over and over again.

I was in bed asleep. Got up and my flat mate said we should leave, she was heading down town anyway.

A min later the two fire trucks pull up outside and my flate mate leaves, I was taking too long. Not my fault, I was tired.

Decided to put on some toast. Took me a while to find my keys and wallet.

My apartment is on the 10th floor, so I needed to take the stairs down.
Stroll out the fire door eating my toast and the place is full of people.

Think I was one of the last ones out.

Not really worried. Most of the time it is a false alarm. This happened about 6hrs ago, haven't been home yet. Maybe my apartment is burned down

....
Anyway, enough of my rambling story.

Does anyone ever leave a building straight away when they hear a fire alarm?
As kids we love to here it in school, fire drills are a great way to get away from doing work. The same applies to the work place.

In day to day activities, would you leave a building if you couldn't smell smoke or see a fire?

cance

nah, it goes off so often that i just ignore it these days.

our apartment is just above the front door of the complex, so the rule is "look out the window and see if anyone else is outside".

MarkR

I'd give it a minute or two to see if it stops, then leave the building with my wallet and pooter. Or family I suppose if at home. I don't think I'd stop to make toast though. Maybe a sandwich if I was starving. And a glass of milk to wash it down with. Followed by a biscuit or two. But no dawdling mind!

Hagar

Next time you could be the toast.

Should I start interviewing for a new mod for Humour / Lolocaust now, just in case?

I did some contract work for a company in Dublin. I was working on the 4th floor when the fire alarm went off. I put on my coat picked up my briefcase and left. Everyone else in the office just sat there and watched as I walked out the door. Strange, very strange.

When you can smell smoke and see flames it may be already to late.

If !==fire drill time,
then
Grab coat, get out, look afterwards.
else
do nothing

Canis Lupus

For gods sake yes you leave... A fire alarm goes off and you make toast?

Ever heard of the Darwin awards?

neacy69

as tommy tiernan says the best thing to do is to all sit around and make jokes about it and then get annoyed the somebody hasn't turned the fecking thing off yet....

The alarm went off here yesterday and nobody moved so neither did I... I got a bit of a surprise when 4 or 5 firemen came walking down the corridor and still nobody moved altho the firemen were pretty busy drinking coffee so must not have been a bg fire!!

chopperbyrne

Our fire alarm goes off in work almost every morning.

It's just deliverys coming through one of the back doors and they don't bother disabling the alarm.

I was working in Xerox for a few weeks and they had fire drills every Friday it seemed.

Arsonists all know that the best time to kill as many as possible is the start the fire when the fire alarm test is scheduled!

Quality

Get Out...

Get the fireman OUT..

And Stay Out..

Thats the firemans code, and I learned that from Fireman Sam!!

Red Alert

Ours is very loud and there is a syren in our room but it's ok if you've headphones on. Luckily the emergency exit is there too - it's funny to watch people hurrying down the corridor to the exit when you're sitting there drinking a coffee.

Bartek07

Most of the time you'll be fine, but had there been a real fire and you were making toast on the 10th floor, you'd be pretty much ****ed.

My house went on fire a few years ago, we all got out very quickly, i remember looking back after running out and the house was literally falling to the ground. Since then, i've always taken fire alarms seriously.

False alarms or not, don't take chances.

Cathmandooo

I've never seen people reacting to a fire alarm. My sister was working in a golf club bar and one day there was a fire in the kitchen. Fire alarms all went off, smoke filled the bar, the ould lads in the bar were worried bout leaving their pints :rolleyes: 'do we have to leave'

Having said that I rarely leg it when I hear a fire alarm.

egan007

The Fire alarm keeps going off in my block.

THe management company say that people keep tampering with the detector in their unit......morons...

Anyway - it's the boy who cried wolf situation now. Nobody reacts.

A few months ago I was sitting here, looked out my window and there was a firebrigade with flashing blues. I headed out and the Apt next door was on fire!

-on a side not these are concrete boxes all around so the firebrigade di dnot even bother evacuating anyyone - moral of the story - if buying an apartment buy a concrete one on the ground floor

faceman

Canis Lupus wrote: »

For gods sake yes you leave... A fire alarm goes off and you make toast?

Ever heard of the Darwin awards?

+1

L1011

Walk, don't run, leave the building in an orderly fashion and make sure everyone else is out too....

I'm the fire officer for my floor in work

Rob_l

I am one of those people who will always leave when I hear a fire alarm Im up and out its not really a major concern for me to walk outside and on the off chance the building is burning Im hoping my quick reaction time may one day save my life. I have noticed others sit there although usually the yare like sheep waiting to see what others are doing and by my action of leaving I will usually cause more to follow and eventually the herd mentality kicks in, to you all I say baaaaaaaaaaaa

Wompa1

Quality wrote: »

Get Out...

Get the fireman OUT..

And Stay Out..

Thats the firemans code, and I learned that from Fireman Sam!!

Fireman Sam started my love affair with fire and its creation!

Zzippy

Nah. Crack open another beer. Turn tv up to drown out siren. Kick back. Relax. Laugh at suckers standing outside in the rain.

In October my brother got married in New York. About 40 irish people went over (friends and family) and we all stayed in the same hotel on Long Island. At one point during the week, the fire alarm goes off in the morning, at around 10-ish or so. The brother and myself just stay there, don't move. Eventually it stops and we get peckish, so head down to the restaurant. It was packed with all the Americans who had left their rooms during the alarm.

There were only 5 irish people in the restaurant. And thats only because they were there before the alarm.

In work we are trained how to evacuate people during an alarm.

Sugar Drunk

Of its an unscheduled fire alarm I will get up and leave.

personally I hate fire drills and just dont bother. They have thoguth me not to bother. i bring my phone, bag and coat as I know its only a drill and im not going to stand outside freezing for 20 minutes no thanks.

Whats the point of telling us in advance that you are going to have a fire drill? If we know in advance its absolutely no practice for the real thing as people will not react the same way! Wouldnt it make way more sense to have unscheduled fire drills and not tell any employees? that way at least you get an accurate reaction to what would happen in a real fire if an alarm went off.

Overheal

Deleted User wrote: »

If !==fire drill time,
then
Grab coat, get out, look afterwards.
else
do nothing

syntax error!


if (alarm == true && seeFire == true && smellSmoke == true)
{
run( belongings );
}
else {
bum( finger );
}


When you're on the 10th floor though....... yea, you're just asking to die. If a fire started below, you would be trapped in the building while you waited to die. Otherwise, nobody gives a **** about fire alarms.

biko

I'd rather leave when I hear a fire alarm than chancing it.
There's been too many fires in clubs and such where people didn't leave immediately and got trapped and trampled.

In less than a minute, the entire stage was engulfed in flames, with most of the band members and entourage scurrying for the west exit by the stage.

By this time, the piercing shrill of the fire alarm made everyone acutely aware of the impending danger, and although there were four possible exits, most people naturally headed for the front door through which they had entered. The ensuing stampede in the inferno led to a crush in the narrow hallway leading to that exit, quickly blocking it completely and resulting in numerous deaths and injuries among the patrons and staff

*

Crumble Froo

hmmph... after the time i accidently set fire to my mattress while i was sleeping on it... i am a lot more fire aware, and am more likely to at least look around if the fire alarm goes off.

edit: also, i always knew that it was the toxic smoke that was more likely to kill you from inhalation... but did you know that it also puts you into a deeper sleep if you're sleeping at the time?

Ruu_Old

The last apartment we stayed at had a fire alarm that wasn't connected to the local fire department. It hadn't a bell type noise either, it was more of a constant clicking or buzzing noise and I was confused for a second but went outside and called the fire department all the same when I listened towards the alarm box. Someone had opened the fire exit or something else so false alarm.
Ah good old fire drills in primary school.

Overheal

Overheal wrote: »

syntax error!

insufficient time to debug... fire alarm went off

If there is ever a good reason to heed fire alarms this is one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford_City_disaster
I saw this on TV when it happened, from dropped match to inferno engulfing the whole stand less than 3 minutes.

Overheal

Deleted User wrote: »

insufficient time to debug... fire alarm went off

compilers need a spell checker too to be fair >_> hours lost on a typo.... stupid = sign.

NoQuarter

isnt the drill just feel the floor and if its still cool youve plenty of time???

Kur4mA

The only time I make an effort to move my arse when I hear a fire alarm is in work. The only reason on these occasions is because I am "ushered" out by our fire marshals.

ScumLord

If it goes off at work I'll run out of the building, get in my car and go home and watch some tv just to be on the safe side.

Any other time I'll wait till I hear screaming like "my baby! my baby! I have to go back!!... It's to late for that she's already gone.... NOOOooooooo!!" Then I'll make my way to the exit in an orderly fashion.

Toto Wolfcastle

I worked in a department store while renovations were going on. The builders set off the fire alarm about twice a week. (accidently I hope!) Anyway, it was always a false alarm, but we still had to evacuate. We were told to tell the customers twice to leave, and if they refused, leave them there. They were more concerned about the clothes they had to leave behind.

Alarm in my apartment went off 3 times in one night recently (something to do with an overheating boiler turning the place into a sauna) and my housemate, although she heard it, didn't bother getting up. Obviously I value my life so I checked that everything was ok. If there was a problem I'd be out my bedroom window (ground floor apartment) in a flash, and she'd be still in bed. (Of course I'd bang on her window once I was safe.)

Jonny Arson

in my old job the entire building had to be evacuated far too often due to someone burning their toast in the morning, it got to such a routine that half the company would remain there which was pretty dangerous but there's nothing like an evacuation to waste 20 minutes of the working day

RxQueen

when it used to go off in school, the teachers used never leave us out and kept going on with the lesson, until one they there was actually a "fire", well when i say fire a i mean a really small one in the sience room, but that thought the teachers a lesson.
Now being in work i never heard the fire alarm but if i did i would be out like a shot, always looking for a reason to get out anyways, would waste a few minutes!

thefinalstage

I used to use them to steal equitment from my old school. I got so much pure chlorine I could have made a gas cloud the size of louth!

eamoss

In School we would be the 1st ones down to the astro (our fire point) remember in 5th year was in a class with all messers and once the fire alarm went off they started going mad, shouting about there was a fire and then legged it out of the room jumping over tables and chairs. They also came back 1st so they moved eveyones stuff around like my copy ended up in some girls bag. :rolleyes:

Last year when I lived on campus they would have a fire dirll ever month, I missed the 1st few but I was there for 2 of them and they would go into everyone room to make sure there was no there, was funny in a way becasuse you could just see the lights going on in every room one by one.

They did it by hall by hall and my hall was right beside the student office where the the fire alarm went off as well as the hall that the alarm went off so we got to hear the annoying voice every week.

One went off there the other week in Uni, was in the computer lab there was about 70 or so people in the lab not one person left then about 5mins later one of the lectures came in and told us to go out side to the fire point.

Faith

In first year of uni, I lived in a big student apartment complex with 50 or so apartments. The fire alarms were so sensitive that steam from the bathroom after a shower could set it off. Needless to say, one went off about once a week. I left every time, but man did it suck. The first time it happened my flatmates and I were all having dinner and we didn't know what was going on. We just sat there for a while looking at each other, before moseying out. Only once was there ever a fire.

beautiation

I still have my old supersoaker X200, no fire would be stupid enough to come near my house.

DublinWriter

I'm old enough to remember the Stardust tragedy, so I always evacuate the premises in such cases.

Fire drills at the office are the best as it's a chance to have an unscheduled smoke break and catch up on gossip.

Terry

Rabies wrote: »

At lunch time today the fire alarm in my aparment building went off.
Really load annoying siren and "please evacuate the building" repeated over and over again.

I was in bed asleep. Got up and my flat mate said we should leave, she was heading down town anyway.

A min later the two fire trucks pull up outside and my flate mate leaves, I was taking too long. Not my fault, I was tired.

Decided to put on some toast. Took me a while to find my keys and wallet.

My apartment is on the 10th floor, so I needed to take the stairs down.
Stroll out the fire door eating my toast and the place is full of people.

Think I was one of the last ones out.

Not really worried. Most of the time it is a false alarm. This happened about 6hrs ago, haven't been home yet. Maybe my apartment is burned down

....
Anyway, enough of my rambling story.

Does anyone ever leave a building straight away when they hear a fire alarm?
As kids we love to here it in school, fire drills are a great way to get away from doing work. The same applies to the work place.

In day to day activities, would you leave a building if you couldn't smell smoke or see a fire?

Typical Irish laxadasical attitude. I like it.

Wompa1 wrote: »

Fireman Sam started my love affair with fire and its creation!

I don't like you.
You never gave me the chance to ban you when I was an AH mod. You and your net handle.