We totally just had a fire alarm, complete with the ear-piercing shriek of some newfangled alarm system. (As a fellow apartment-dweller lamented, I miss the old fire alarm bells that they had in elementary school.) No word yet on what the cause of the false blaze was, or when my hearing will return.
I (erm) was just getting out of the shower when the alarm hit, so that was lots of fun. Highlights included:
1) “If those sprinklers that are in every room go off, I’m not going to be happy. I’ve got a $4,000 computer in my place,” said Guy A. “But I’m buying insurance, so I guess it’s not that big a deal.” My response: “If those sprinklers go off, I’m going to be paying my insurance bill.”
2) Guy B works at UPS in the evenings, and recommends that you never ship anything via them. Guy A quips “Universal Package Smashers.”
3) When the shrill alarm shut off, the three of us (there was one gal outside, but she didn’t bother chatting, nor joining us) wandered back inside. We met a handful of firefighters who were headed towards the stairs, who we asked (while turning around, since we knew the answer) if we could head back to our rooms. They BSed with us: oh, no! It’s totally not safe! Look at the smoke filling the hallway as we speak!
…
I have absolutely no regret about missing the false fire alarm events of the dorms.
Oh, you have one of those ear-shredding alarms, too? I hated having those go off at the old radio gig… one of the sirens was located just outside my office door, not that it mattered where it or I was ’cause the decibel levels were INSANE. Ugh.
I think we have the same thing at work. There are alarms (industry term: pain dispensers) posted in several of the labs and in the hallways. I found that their neuron-rending noise could be greatly lessened by putting my hand over the speaker-like front, which resulted in a still loud but not painful noise akin to honking. Next time (let’s hope there is none) I’ll have to break out the wax paper to see if I can make the world’s first Fire Alarm Kazoo.
We had fire drills tolerably often at my dorm in college. We looked on it as an opportunity to go down the fire escape, a solid but aged hulk of iron. Those of us on the wrong end of the hallway would wind up tripling our escape route length, risking death with each extra step, to join the fun.
Our fire alarm went off at least once a week at my dorm. More often than not it was a poor college kid who didn’t know how to cook and burnt their food. Worst of all was that it was a 9 story building and I was onthe 8th floor.