January 21st, 2008
#425 - Klaxons
It can be a very frightening thing when a smoke alarm goes off. It’s happened to me a few times in public places. The worst time was being woken up by one at a hotel. I didn’t really understand what was happening at first at I looked up at the flashing light on the wall. I hastily pulled some pants on and tripped out into the hallway when the alarms stopped. I stood there for a few moments trading confused groggy looks with the other people in the hallway. I went back in my room and sat down on my bed and the alarm started up again. I let out a sigh and stood up… and the alarm stopped. When the alarm went off the third time I put a pillow over my head and fell back asleep.
January 21st, 2008 at 12:16 am
Indeed. it is the worst when you know its going to go off because you’re cooking something smokey, and then it doesnt, and then you say “ok” and forget about it. Then it goes off.
January 21st, 2008 at 12:39 am
It’s as if the alarm forbode you to sleep :O
The Duck Has Spoken.
January 21st, 2008 at 12:54 am
I’ve always wondered how those situations would pan out. Roughly 1000 sleep-zombies casually toddling down the fire escapes checking the emergency route maps every minute or so after leisurely packing up all their belongings while the building burns away.
My smoke alarm only picks up fumes from my gas heater after I turn it off or when the battery is dying and chirping every 5 minutes at 3AM and I can’t locate the noise origin. Light up two incense in my tiny broomcloset room? Nothin.
January 21st, 2008 at 12:54 am
After a long Friday of work, I went to bed early. My idiot brother and his friend decided to make french fries, on the stove, with a pot of oil. There was a grease fire. It was my brother’s great idea to put the burning pot in the sink and let the water fly. I was woken up by the sound of a pot exploding. I stumbled out of bed, threw on my pants and opened my door to find that the apartment’s sprinklers had activated… Quite shocking, I promise.
Ducks Don’t Talk…
January 21st, 2008 at 12:58 am
No, no, that’s echo.
January 21st, 2008 at 1:12 am
This duck talks like you wouldn’t believe.
The Duck Has Spoken A Whole Lot.
January 21st, 2008 at 1:12 am
We had a lot of problems with smoke alarms in our uni dorms. Basically if someone set one off in one building, all of them would go off. A lot of the time they were set off deliberately at 4am. I got so used to it I would sleep right through them.
January 21st, 2008 at 1:30 am
My smoke alarm is right outside my bathroom door, so when I take a shower I have to turn on my vents so that the steam won’t set them off. (It’s done that several times.)
January 21st, 2008 at 2:12 am
I hate when steam sets off my alarm too.
Also, when I forget to open the fireplace.
Or walk away from the stove while cooking.
January 21st, 2008 at 6:24 am
I live in halls of residence for University, it’s essentially a big block of flats that are owned by the Uni. Not too long ago the alarms went off in the middle of the night. I assumed they were broken coz they went off the other night and just waited for em to stop, but then I heard my flat mates banging on my door so I assumed there might be a real emergency and managed to pull myself out of bed, get dressed and head downstairs to the courtyard. All I can say it was very surreal seeing so many people I recognised from randomly passing them by in my block, all standing around in dressing gowns outside at 2am. The worst thing was like your story, after the alarms stop and everyone headed back to bed, they went off again for another few minutes. It was very surreal though since after I left my room I could hear the sirens of everyone else’s room all going off out of synchorisation around me creating this very disorientating echo effect.
Thankfully our alarms are triggered by heat rather than smoke, otherwise being in a building full of students, they’d go off every day due to our profound ability to not cook too well.
January 21st, 2008 at 6:48 am
Ah, dorm room fires.
I had that happen my junior year. Some joker left a halogen light on next to a sofa covered with clothing while he went out to party. Nothing like standing around in below-freezing temperatures wearing just a pair of shorts. Luckily, I was able to raise a friend in another dorm so I didn’t need to stay outside.
I felt bad for the guy’s room mate (who was out of town for the weekend) and the girls who lived in the room under them (the building was on a hill, so from that side the third floor was actually the fourth from the ground, and apparently the firemen didn’t feel the need to look for where the actual flames and smoke were coming from before aiming their hose).
January 21st, 2008 at 7:42 am
Hell, my fire alarm sometimes goes off just because I’m taking a hot shower. But when I hold a match right under it, it doesn’t go off.
Recap: Hot water sets it off, smoke doesn’t.
Stupid alarm.
January 21st, 2008 at 9:03 am
Ive had alarms go off at 3 hotels Ive stayed at, all 3 were horrible and happened in the middle of the night, I think the french hotel I stayed at had the loudesty and most obnoxious one, and there wasnt even a fire at that one, the fire alarm rang at that one aprox 5 times and it was caused by a leaky pipe or something.. I have bad experiences with hotels
January 21st, 2008 at 9:15 am
When I was in college, my freshman year the dorm had problems with the fire alarms. They were going off randomly during the semester about once every three days. It got to the point that no one payed attention because afterward there would be an announcement about not panicking because it was a false alarm. The only time it was real was when I was taking a nap and I decided to sleep through it. Thankfully my roommate was there to wake me up to get me out.
January 21st, 2008 at 11:01 am
Oh yes, college dorm fire alarms. First year, first day of school some idiot sets off the fire alarm at 5:45 in the morning. Wonderful start to the year, I assure you. Few months later it got set off at 2:30 in the morning. Middle of winter, northern Alberta. I think if the building had actually been on fire, we would’ve all tromped right back in. At least it would be warm.
January 21st, 2008 at 1:08 pm
why mittens?
January 21st, 2008 at 1:13 pm
There is a door separating the smoke alarm by our kitchen and our actual kitchen, so if we know we’re going to make something smoky we just close the door.
In my 8th Grade year we had two minor fires at my school, both cooking accidents. First, Mr. Saslow burned something in the staff room microwave, and then one of the lunch ladys burned a potato. When I went back to help out with the school play this year, the drama teacher left a hot pocket in the microwave for ten minutes on high. The entire room filled with smoke, and the hot pocket was turned into charcoal.
My Drama teacher gets very frazzled on opening night.
January 21st, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I was traveling a couple weeks ago and was in an airport when the fire alarms all went off. Everyone stood there looking around because, when you think about it, what IS the emergency escape plan for an airport? It isn’t exactly publicized. Then it stopped and we all went back to what we were doing. I’m just glad it wasn’t real and that we didn’t have to evacuate.
Also, the student union at my school had a fairly serious fire in November. I wasn’t inside at all during it, but it did create quite a spectacle to watch, with black smoke pouring from a stairwell and the top of the building, and fire crews working to put it out. Unfortunately, the show was not worth the inconvenience– the building, which housed all the convenient eateries and the main dining hall and was right across the street from my dorm as opposed to the at least 10 minute walk away that the other dining halls were, had to be closed for the rest of the semester.
January 21st, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Hehehe. I have a college fire alarm tale to add. Where I go to school, it is very, very windy, and gets very cold at night. At 5 in the morning one weekend, some idiot set off the fire alarm burning a bowl of ramen noodles. No fire or anything, he just burned the stupid things.
The fire station is literally down the street - we can see it from the parking lot we had to stand in. It took them a half an hour to get to us. VERY reassuring. By the time we were allowed back in, it was nearly 7 in the morning. It was cold enough out there that we could all see our breath. All for a bowl of ramen noodles that didn’t even set fire to anything.
Then, the elevator makes this alarm-like noise, not a fire alarm, that goes off all the time. Usually it’s just for a minute or two, but the other day it went off for a good hour.
A lot of times, too, one room’s smoke alarm will go off for no reason. None of the others do, just one room’s. I think it’s because this dorm room is really, really old.
January 21st, 2008 at 3:21 pm
@ Thomas: Because mittens are EEEEEEEEEEEEvil!!!
January 21st, 2008 at 3:29 pm
This is another of those situatiosn where my Naval training comes in handy - once I determine an alarm is spurious, I cease to hear it.
January 21st, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Man, dorm fire alarms. Last semester I was there, I was sick with pneumonia and some creep decided it’d be funny to stumble back drunk from the bars and set off the fire alarms for the whole of the twin dorm buildings I lived in.
I stood outside in the cold Nebraska subzero winds in a nightie and thin robe while on my knees from coughing. For a half-fricking-hour.
That guy is lucky I never found out who he was.
January 21st, 2008 at 4:06 pm
I used to enjoy fire alarms, and bomb threats at my high school, because they were a regular occurrence. Two or three times a week, one of them would happen. My friends and I, being young and stupid, would take the confusion, as an excuse to just sneak away from school for the rest of the day, in the chaos.
My old apartment was the worse though. My room mates cooking, in which he would always burn things, and fill the house with smoke, wouldnt bother it, But when I was cooking (And Im a great cook), it would set it off, making me have to leave, Which always spoiled whatever I was making. At least when I was done, since the food didnt matter anymore, I always had the bottle of wine I bought to cook with, to look forward to.
January 21st, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Closest i’ve ever fgotten to a big fire alarm was in my grade 11 Chemistry class. Some people were doing a chemical reaction where the start a very violent fire with water. they pree mixed most of the chemicals so they were in two piles then wait for the weekend before they had to present. the fire would be big so they were bringing us outside . before they left however they mixed together the chemicals so all they needed to add was the water. Naturally the mostuire in the air was enough to set of the whole batch so now the guy was holding a tray that was belching smoke and shooting of green flames. he ended up with a schorched thumb and left our chemistry class filled with chemical smoke, no fire alarm though, which can’t be a good sign….
January 21st, 2008 at 5:55 pm
and nobody seems to have acknoledged the fact that it makes no sense
January 21st, 2008 at 7:31 pm
^ You obviously haven’t read that many of these comics then.
January 21st, 2008 at 10:12 pm
The only times I’ve ever needed a fire alarm have been when they don’t go off.
Once my friend and I decided to go to Barnes and Noble for about an hour. Her brother invited a friend over (keep in mind these children were only about 7 or 8 at the time, and yes, the parents were home), and the brats went into my friend’s room, took her candle collection, heaped woodshavings over them, and lit it all on fire.
When we got back, we had near to a bonfire to put out. And when we opened the door to get a bucket of water in, the hall alarm (finally) went off and her dad came out to yell at us, assuming we’d set the fire.
That was annoying.
January 23rd, 2008 at 8:29 am
Nrgh… I hate the dorm fire alarm. I’ve got fairly sensitive hearing when it comes to electronics, and I can always hear it just before it starts up, but it’s still annoying… For some reason they always come in groups… The worst day was when it went off four times in the space of three hours or so midnight-3:30ish…. By the third time, the entire group of students had begun to chant dark things and advance slowly on the people keeping us away from our dorms. We were out there for over thirty min, because as it turns out, they had just sent a rookie the final time, and he didn’t know where the shut off switch was… Mind you, since our building practically hums with electricity to the point where a Deaf person can hear it, and we’re the oldest building on campus, perhaps it’s a good thing the alarms are so sensitive…
My floor got commended for “Good obedience during emergency situations” which pretty much translates into “You either really are getting up, or you hide really well…” According to our RA.
I have a bad habit of getting the kitchen overly smokey when I forget that chocolate chips don’t go with the microwave. Yet I have yet to set a fire alarm off.
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:20 pm
steam from the hall shower activates my smoke alarm. u have to shut the door and leave the fan running the whole shower to be able to leave it open in the next ten minutes.
also, 4 times at school one day
also also making fries one time when the grease caught fire and set it off.
fries tasted good, and non stick pan waseaner than when i started making them.
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:24 pm
alsoalsoalso
i was at the museum of science and industry when it caught fire in one of the kitchens that one time in like…2002? i dunno, i was there for the titanic exhibit w/ my school.
I got to talk to a tv reporter! :3
January 24th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
D8 The fire alarm at my high school went off like five times in the middle of winter. Turned out to be broken. Auuughfghh.
February 14th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
On a school trip back in grade school, our hotel’s fire alarm went off around 5 in the morning. Apparently the hotel doesn’t come equipped with alarms in the bedrooms, but our trip came equipped with responsible parents — and persistent, too. They hammered on our door for a good five minutes while the four of us young’ns decided who had to roll over to the door to see what was the matter. Apparently the matter was someone incompetent cooking breakfast down in the hotel kitchen, much to our chagrin: pulled out of bed, for burnt toast!
Burnt toast can’t compare to the fire drills they ran at my internship last summer. Since it was a theatre program, people made a point of not sleeping in their own bed. They also made a point of taking an extra five minutes to find their dressing gowns before they came downstairs and tried to sidle discreetly out of the building, into the mass of their fellow apprentices and interns. Yes, walking out in a pair and turning right around is, in fact, more obvious.
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:53 am
A few years ago I was at a summer camp being held in an old college. I was awoken by a noise one night. It sounded like a very loud fan. I stayed in bed but my roommate was up getting dressed and insisted that it was a fire alarm. Eventually I got up and went outside. Everyone was standing around in the dark and I did not have my contacts in. After a small wait we all went back inside, only to have it go off two more times. Evidently it had also gone off one other time earlier that I had slept through entirely.
There was no fire.