Never a dull moment
There’s nothing quite like a fire alarm to make you think:
“Hm, I wonder what’s up?”
“Ok, I should turn stuff off and head downstairs.”
“Got my keys and phone and wallet, all good.”— hand on the door —
“Wait a sec… I should really put some clothes on!”
And the fire department came and they could find no problems, they said that there might have been two alarms pulled, which makes it seem more like a prank than anything else. It was just like being back in college, when the alarms were pulled in the dorms on a constant basis. It was so bad, you’d regularly hear people running down the hall, pulling the alarm and slamming the door behind them. Not that this isn’t normal behavior for a real fire, but you soon realized that it was just standard procedure. And I tend to think that’s beyond the realm of pranking, to pull a building of strangers out of bed, our of their homes just because… you want a laugh? What is that, like some kind of low ranking Batman/Joker thing? It’s no wonder that when the alarms are pulled now, nearly NO ONE comes out of the building. I recall being at a friend’s place in an older building and the alarm went off and he didn’t budge saying, “I ain’t moving until I smell smoke.” (Yes, you know who you are) — However we were on a much higher floor and sure the stairs would have been a pain, but still how bad is it that we already know there’s probably no fire just the system having a brain fart, or some kid pulling and running.
I want those days back where the fire alarms were like a cuff that you had to have the fire department remove, which was no problem if there was a real fire. Oy vey.
In my 30-year-old building, the fire-department-approved plan is to NOT move unless you smell smoke (unless you otherwise feel unsafe). A couple of years ago, there was a MAJOR fire in the apartment immediately underneath mine (it was gutted). The apartments on the same wing were burned out, but nothing on any othe floor. Otherwise it was smoke damage. So, apparently, the plan actually makes sense.
A lot of newer buildings are made such that the fire alarms will only go off on certain floors should there be an incident. I recall at my last job a security guard telling me, “Oh yeah, it’s only about two floors above and below the actual reported alarm that have to evacuate.”
Then again, when it’s work, I’ll take any excuse to get the heck out of the building and just maybe slink off to the metro and home.