FIRE!! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!

[RecoveringKinkoid]

CRML, how does a shower set off a fire alarm?

I set off the fire alarm at my old place (a trailer) with a plate of dog food.

That's the God's honest truth. I walked past it with a particularly aromatic dish of dog food, and off it went right in my ear. Scared the bejesus out of me.

We're thinking the thing "smelled" it, I guess.

[retaildrone]

It's always been the opposite whenever I hear an alarm go. No one cares. Even if someone comes over and tells people to get their arses out, they still sort of meander towards the exits, browsing along the way.

I saw this once. My hubby, daughter and I just sat down at the food court in the mall when the fire alarm went off. Firemen burst in the door, you could see and smell the smoke (I even commented to hubby before that I thought something was burning but passed it off as someone burned some food) What did people do? Nothing. they continued to mill around, eat, etc... WE grabbed our food and walked out the door.

I am still amazed by all the people who just sat there with the loud alarm, firemen, and smoke.

[crazylegs]

We're thinking the thing "smelled" it, I guess.

All smoke alarms contain a small amount of radioactive material and it 'detects' smoke by the slight difference in the atmosphere, so something particularly pungent might be sufficient to set it off.

[retaildrone]

Yeah. I guess the shower would have to be very hot to set of a heat sensor. I'd think there's something a little off there.

I had this problem at my old apt. I would take a nice, hot shower only to have it cut short by the fire alarm.

Yes. I'm with you 100% on that. We had CCTV footage from a cinema that burned down after a cigarette was left to smoulder in a bin. The place was a raging inferno in less than 10 minutes.

A fire doubles every 30 seconds.

[crazylegs]

A fire doubles every 30 seconds.

Which is why sprinkler systems are so vital. IMHO all public buildings should have them fitted by law, irrespective of size.

[Andara Bledin]

no one left, no one left the machines, there was a ceiling show going on and those poor people had no way down from their mock floats, the thing they were on just stopped and they had to sit there,

That makes me wonder if the alarm had been going off for no reason recently. And I think I remember there being emergency stuff in the floats when I did the ride thing way back when it was still new.

I've been doing gaming conventions three times a year for the last 13.5 years, and at least once a year, if not more often, there would be a fire alarm. Sometimes it would be a full-blown problem (at least one was an instance of a bad circuit in the system and it went off about once every hour for almost a whole day), and other times it was an isolated situation. At no time did we (the conventioneers) ever leave the hotel. There were never any fire vehicles, either.

The only time there ever was an actual fire, there was no alarm, and it burned itself out. Some asshat set a fire in a hubcap in one of the stairwells. There was nothing else it could burn, so it went out on its own, but not before being reported to the hotel because the elevators sucked and a lot of people used the stairs at that point.

^-.-^

[BookstoreEscapee]

The fire alarm in my dorm used to be set off by the steam from the bathroom at the opposite end of the hall from me. I guess the alarm was set too close to the door. If anyone was in the showers they had to prop the door open a little bit, or else when they opened it all the steam would rush out at once and set off the alarm. (And guys, no picturing college girls stuck outside in their pajamas....)

It was also set off on more than one occasion by microwave popcorn.

[Sylvia727]

It was also set off on more than one occasion by microwave popcorn.

Last year in my dorm hall, at 1:30 AM during finals week, the fire alarm went off and we all trooped outside in our pjs. Our alarms are rigged so they know which room set it off; the girls had been making microwave popcorn. We all got a lecture about the microwaves and went back to bed. Months later, I was talking to one of the girls involved, and it turned out they deliberately set it off because "we were bored of studying" It was all I could not to kill her.

[Geek King]

(And guys, no picturing college girls stuck outside in their pajamas....)

How about without them?

[zzapp the witch]

Actually, there was a casino in Vegas that burned and they found people inside still sitting at their slot machines.....bbq'd. I wanna say it was Harrah's? Dunno, one of the ones my parents honeymooned at......

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Actually, there was a casino in Vegas that burned and they found people inside still sitting at their slot machines.....bbq'd. I wanna say it was Harrah's? Dunno, one of the ones my parents honeymooned at......

The old MGM Grand, which is now Bally's.

[Peppergirl]

The old MGM Grand, which is now Bally's.

My parents were there. They still wont talk about it. My mom still keeps her room key on her key chain, 30 years later. This was back in the day before key cards. I guess she keeps it as a reminder that they survived, although I find it a bit morbid. Thank God that there are 'no clocks' in vegas and they were gambling at another casino when it happened, or I'd have possibly been an orphan.

Absolutely awful what happened to all those people.

I knew a couple families that died in the Beverly Hills Supper club fire in Northern Kentucky. I think to date, it ranks number 3 as the most deadly fires in the US. Absolutely awful. I don't mess around when it comes to fire drills. My dad is a retired CFD firefighter and he'd have my head if I did!

[Broomjockey]

The old MGM Grand, which is now Bally's.

Except if I remember the discussion from an older thread properly, there's actually no evidence that people were still sitting at their slot machines and burned alive. It's a little liberty with the truth spread by CSI. Yes, a lot of people died in the fire, but again, no one fused to slot machines or anything.

[Andara Bledin]

Except if I remember the discussion from an older thread properly, there's actually no evidence that people were still sitting at their slot machines and burned alive. It's a little liberty with the truth spread by CSI. Yes, a lot of people died in the fire, but again, no one fused to slot machines or anything.

According to reports on the fire, the vast majority of deaths were due to people being caught in stairwells with the smoke and fumes. Bad baffled within the ventilation system allowed bad air to be pumped into the hotel portion of the building. Aside from the smoke, there were also toxic fumes from burning decorations. The fire itself was contained to the first and second floors.

From the one time I was involved in a CSI shoot (I was an extra), they don't really put a whole lot of effort into research on some things.

^-.-^

[Ree]

I worked in a store that burned down.

It was one of the most traumatic things I have ever gone through. I had nightmares for months.

The store was completely engulfed in flames in less than 10 minutes, and was completely gutted in less than an hour.
Some people heard the alarms and assumed it was a false alarm and kept shopping. Others just panicked. One woman had to be pried from her shopping cart.
She just could not move.

If I ever hear a fire alarm, I do not assume it's a false alarm and I get my ass out of there as fast as I can.