Hi, I'm William and I'm new to this site. Maybe more about me later.
I too have noticed that in most cartoons and some TV shows most fire alarms sound like school bells, also like that in some movies, and in some movies like "The Net" (Sandra Bullock as Angela Bennet or Bennit mistaken for Ruth Marx) the fire alarm is a buzzar, and that sound is used for other alarms, like in that Fairly Odd Parents episode "Balance of Flour" where Timmy Turner, my most favorite cartoon character in the world as a matter of fact, goes into Nana Boom Boom's (Jorgen Van Strangle's grandmother) place to get a top secret recipe (I won't give away too much of the episode for those who have not watched it.)
When I was going to East Side Elementary School to finish Kindergarten and go thru 1st grade in Gouverneur, New York, the fire alarm inside the building was like a school bell, in fact the school bell and fire alarm sounded exactly the same, only by physical appearence, the school bells were black while the fire alarms were red with White Strobe lights and outside the building, some fire alarms were continually sounding buzzers, which a hotel we stayed at in Ft. Drum before we left New York also use, same sound only with white strobe lights just like the bell alarms in that school. In West Side school, where I went for second grade, also in Gouverneur, the only fire alarms I saw and heard there were red bells with strobe lights.
A school I went to before east side school and most schools I went to had buzzers. One fire alarm (Rainbow American Elementary School in Ansbach, Germany) sounded like a siren that sounded like a sick or injured cow and it blared through the P.A. system and it didnt come with any stobe lights. The next school I went to for 5th grade had two different fire alarms in two separate buildings, the alarms in the main building sounded like one of Buzz Lightyear's laser sounds (e.g. when Sid accidentally steps on him) and came with red strobe lights that didn't work until later in the school year (I thought they would be rotating lights like on emergency vehicles.) In the other building the fire alarm was a high piercing noise but no strobe lights (Kaiserslautern American Elementary School in Kaiserslautern, Germany just outside Vogelwegh (misspelled) )
The next schools I went to all had white strobe lights, starting in Sembach Middle School in Sembach Air Base, Germany, which had not only the first white strobe lights I'd seen in over 4 years but fire alarms that sounded almost like screaming women (like Ahhh Ahhh Ahhh Ahhh, the A sound as in "as, at, cat, and cast"). The rest of the schools I went to had low pitch fire alarms, although Sierra Vista Middle School in Sierra Vista had one old style bell hanging outside the school library. When I went to Sahuaro High School here in Tucson, where I graduated, there were two fire alarm sounds, but they were both all over the school. One kind of alarm was a continual buzzer with white strobe lights and the other alarm sounded like a police car siren and like at Rainbow School, it blared through the P.A. system but only during fire drills, during false alarms and the real deal, the P.A. alarm wasn't used, I think it was only activated from the office building.
Fire alarms scare me but they're also interesting, especially when they come with strobe lights.
Anyway, I don't really care much how fire alarms on cartoons, T.V. shows and movies sound, I just wish they came with strobe lights, especially in cartoons, otherwise they're boring and I now imagine strobe lights on cartoons.
I too saw the two Arthur episodes D.W. All Fired Up and April 9th and noticed the fire alarms were Buzzers, must be like that all over Elwood City, although when Lakewood was on fire, in addition to the buzzer, there was also s ringing bell. But like with other cartoons, these also would have been better with strobe lights but that's just my personal opinion. So I wrote my own story about Lakewood Elementary School having. Fire Drill and posted it on FanFiction Dot Net (cannot post URLs so I hope you know to put the sign dot (.) not the word dot). It is titled A Fire Drill at Lakewood and it is in the Cartoons, Arthur, category. And I included strobe lights in the story.
In my opinion, all fire alarms should come with strobe lights whether it's an old building or new building and they should be white or else red. And they should be included on TV shows, movies, and even cartoons, although I guess it's harder and more complicated and time consuming to do on cartoons like putting 5 fingers on characters instead of just four, and I likd it better when cartoon characters have 5 fingers but that's just me.
However many new buildings, at least in Tucson, have buzzer alarms with white strobes inside the building but the traditional bells on the outside. I thought the traditional bells were discontinued, guess not.
Now I know what was meant by fire alarms pulsing, and what that action is that smoke alarms and fire alarms do. My home smoke alarm beeps and pulses.
06 May 2013, 9:27 pm
