For some reason, I always seem to get stuck in buildings with fire alarms going off during inclement weather. Tonight is no exception.
When I was a freshman in college, a fire alarm went off about 3:00 in the morning (only an hour after I had gone to bed studying for a final). Everyone in our dorm had to trek out in their pajamas across the street while the firemen went in to check everything out. Of course, none of us were prepared for the snow that started to fall as we waited outside.
A quarter later, after I had moved into my sorority house, the fire alarm went off on a very stormy night. Shortly thereafter, the power went out and we had to wait outside in the dark until the firemen could verify that there was no fire. During that time, my friend A. and I decided to walk to my cousin's apartment where the two fell in love, and after 8 1/2 years of marriage they now have a 1/2 year old boy. I'm such a good match maker :)
But I digress. Tonight, about 8:45 PM, I was on the phone with a friend when all of the fire alarms in my condo started to go off. I about had a heart attack, and my friend thought I was in a bomb raid or something. Having settled in for the night, I had to quickly grab a few things to wear and get outdoors where it was freezing and snowy. About 45 minutes later, we were finally able to go back inside.
So what was the cause? We don't know. The firemen were able to tell that the problem alarm was on the second floor, but two out of the three units were unoccupied at the time. They did their best to check in the windows to see if there was any smoke or other evidence of a fire, but didn't see anything. So, their solution was to disable the alarms on the second floor and allow us back into the building. When I asked whether that was really safe, considering they didn't actually search the two unoccupied units, they responded that they always try not to knock down any doors unnecessarily and that with older alarm systems such as ours, false alarms are usually the culprit. So, I suppose I'll know later tonight if my alarms start going off again and my floor is on fire from the unit below me.
Good times...
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3 comments:
I lived in the dorm right next to yours. We eventually took a policy where if you were found to be one of the many people who insisted on leaving cooking food unattended, you were reviewed for eviction." After two quarters, two people had been evicted. Stupid-ass kids, we were.
Not me, though. I was just a kid.
I think they figured out that the on in our dorm was someone who left their cigarette somewhere on the smoking floor. The fact that we had a smoking floor was kind of dumb anyway - the fire alarms were almost always due to something on that floor. That's what I call second-hand annoyance...
There was a *smoking floor?* Wow...
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