School fire drills

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Shouldn't the building construction stuff be done between school terms? or in the off season? At least a majority of the construction.

That's why I don't like the year-round and off-track school scheduling. It doesn't allow custodians and maintenance crews to be given time to fix up and clean the campuses, including the fire alarms. Because several crops of students are having classes at different intervals, there is no clear way of proper maintenance.

Fire alarms always make me jump. One time when I was in the eighth grade it was pouring with rain, and somehow some of the rain got into the wiring of the fire alarm system so that the alarm kept going off all morning…I thought I would go mad.

They're rebuilding the entire school and it is hard to get builders to work in summer holidays when its the christmas/new year period, although they did a bit during that break. The first set of builders wouldn't work if it was raining or over 35 degrees... so they wouldn't have gotten anything done in the holiday breaks. I would say they aren't going to put fire alarms in at all actually, it's good because they won't go off, but they're using 30 year old fire blankets in brand new rooms and they aren't intending to install a PA system at all.

A school with no FA? That's illegal. The only state I know of that has an alternative is Georgia, where if a building has no working alarm system, a "fire watch" must be appointed to patrol the building for fires and fire hazards. The fire watch is not allowed to do anything else at all while on duty. The law states that this option is only recommended for short periods of time, like when an alarm system is disabled for repairs. Other states might do this, but I never checked.

The fire alarms really freaked me out a few years ago, but now when it goes off, I just kind of stare off, file downstairs like normal, and then the noise and strobe lights that accompany them start to affect me, and I usually have to cover my ears from it. It's much worse being around all those noisy people, though.

The fire alarms really freaked me out a few years ago, but now when it goes off, I just kind of stare off, file downstairs like normal, and then the noise and strobe lights that accompany them start to affect me, and I usually have to cover my ears from it. It's much worse being around all those noisy people, though.

I used to really fear fire drills in grade school up until 4th grade when they changed the old alarm system from the metal bell to a low-pitched pulsing siren. I had a much easier time but I still feared the ones when they told us the time and day it was going to happen. And then the next level when they just said what day but not the time. Those first two rounds were hell.

Here's the fire drills in order:

1. both time and date are given
2. only day is specified
3. only faculty and staff are made aware of time and date
4. only administration is aware of time and date
5. no one knows except fire department

I figure it's time for me to have my say on this

I HATE FIRE ALARMS

Any type of alarm/buzzer/whistle is the bain of my ears.

In grade school, the teachers kept the door to the room closed most of the time so when it went off, the sound was pretty muffuled so it didn't bug me too much. When we went out into the hallway I would cover my ears.

Similar thing happened to me in first grade back in jan 1987 duing a really bad cold snap. Our schools boiler was wired into the alarm system in case it malfunctioned. Anyway, the cold weather was tricking the alarm into thinking there was something wrong and all day long the alarm was going off. After the morning recess, I was taking my winter clothes off and I was right below one of the alarms when it went off....

In sixth grade, the fire dept mandated that my school be evacuated in a certain amount of time, 45 seconds I believe. anyway, every wedensday afternoon, the fire dept would come to do a drill until we met the time.

This was absolutely awful for me because I could see the fire truck outside the window of class. The anxiety inside of me would build up to unheard of levels as 1:30pm approached which was when they usually had the drill.

What brand and model of signals does everyone have in their school? If you're not sure, check out the aforementioned web page and forum on fire alarms. My school's notification appliances are Gentex GMSs and Edwards Integrities set to an intermittent tone of about 1 second on, 1 second off. There are questions as to whether this tone is "slow march time."

I have no idea??????

These things were completely square, gray, and had two square horns sticking out of them pointing opposite of eachother. They were probably installed when the school I went to was built which was 1964.

Ah yes, projector horns. They might have been Simplex 4040's, or Federal Signal Vibratone horns. Do you remember what the pull stations looked like in your school?

And yes, they probably were from the 1960s.

I try to get out of the building as soon as possible. Not because I'm afraid there's a fire, but I can't stand the noise.

Forgot to mention that our pull stations are Edwards 278Bs, the dual action ones that say "lift then pull handle" on the first handle, and "pull for FIRE" on the actual handle. I believe I saw one in the pulled position the day after the alarm went off after school (I was there working on the computer and walked out 1 minute before it went off ). I don't know how the alarm could have been reset if the pull station hadn't been reset, but I definately remember seeing a pulled station one day. Also, our annunciators are the EST model with the 4 buttons on the left for reset, alarm silence trouble silence, and the distinguishing button of this model, "drill/all call." I'm not sure what model the main FACP is becuase it's in the electrical room or some other off-limits area.

The pull stations were red. The handle was shaped like an arrow pointing downward and printed in white letters was the phrase "Pull Down". At the apex of the arrow was one of those little glass rods so one would know which station was pulled.

I've never had a problem with fire drills. All the schools I went to used fire alarm systems with a low-pitched, continuous blare. Unlike the wail of a fire truck, this type of sound never bothered me. I was more concerned about the prospect of losing my posessions in the potentially real fire, than how I felt about the drill or even my own safety.

Ah yes, I know which ones you're talking about. Probably a Simplex system then. And with those horns in your school, I could not blame you for getting anxious about fire drills. Those things are deafening!