Are you scared of the fire alarm?

Post Reply New Topic

The sound crawls under my skin and stays in my head for at least an hour after. Usually it's better when I'm told in advance, otherwise I start freaking out that it's a real fire and I'm going to die (it's one of my biggest fears)

Most of the kids at the autism unit in my school did not like the fire alarm (including me). I don't think I was particularly scared of it, but it startled me. I knew kids with really bad sensory problems who would have panic atacks because of it.

I am not afraid that there could be a fire, I am just scared to death of the sound. I always cover my ears until we get outside. Same for tornado drills. I cover my ears until the alarm stops or I am settled against the wall.

tornado drills have never been a problem for me. They didn't come with a startling sound, unlike the fire drills.

The fire alarm in my elementary school really bothered me. The school was completely remodeled, and we got new fire alarm system. It was one of these high pitched screaching noises, with strobe lights. It not only bothered me, it bothered almost everone in the entire school.

I'm not scared of the fire alarms, but I can't stand the sound. Almost always before the alarm goes off, my head is under my desk searching for a dropped pencil. It goes off and I end up walking oput of the room with a concussion. It just startles the heck out of me.

I'm not neccessarily scared of it, but I hate it with a passion. It always hurts my ears so much when I'm inside. We have one of the high-pitched flashing strobe alarms at our school. owie

When I was young I was. But by the time I hit high school I wasn't any more. I found them annoying, actually.

This is troubling because the alarm in my apartment building was installed poorly:
1. It's set to the highest decibel - which, from our parking lot manages to be louder than the loudest rock concert i've ever attended (Lightning Bolt at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel)
2. It's sensitive. It will go off on steam from a shower, cigarettes, grills from outside or even nothing at all
3. It's misused. One time a few months ago, some kids came into my apartment building and pulled the alarm. This caused everyone to be woken up at 3 in the morning. They stood by the door and waited for some kid to come out, who they then beat up in front of 50+ people.

I might actually move out because of it. You wouldn't like to be woken up at 2 in the morning or so for a false fire alarm, would you?

not really. i just flinch a little and then realize what it is. the noise doesnt scare me after the initial sound.

I always have hated fire alarms, I even plug my ears before the alarm starts whenever there is a practice drill coming that I know about. But when it comes unexpectedly that's when I get even more annoyed.

I never could stand them... and still can't (not good when you work in a school!! )

Whenever I knew they were coming, I would be somewhere between heavy internal panic and all-out tears/total meltdown, just waiting for the alarm to go off. When they were unannounced, I'd spend the rest of the day freaking out about the alarm going off again. My elem school principal even let me run a fire drill to help break me of this, but it didn't help (though it was fun for that one day!)

Fortunately, my school announces all drills to the staff ahead of time, and they're always at the beginning of class, so I'm fully aware of what's going to happen, and I can be practically out the door when the alarms go off... with the ears covered in advance, of course!

-M

I'm not so much afraid of the sound of the alarm as I am the fact that with the building I'm usually in, if a fire were to reach the basement labs, the chemicals we keep down there would cause an explosion that would pretty much kill everyone within a quarter of a mile.

I'm scared silly of the fire alarm. Some because of the fear of fire, but mostly because its a loud startling noise and it produces pandemonium with the people around me.

A couple of nights ago, the fire alarm went off in my dorm at 11:15 PM. I was halfway asleep but it was awful and loud and even though it was only 'cause some stupid kids had burned popcorn 2 floors below me, I couldn't get myself to go back into the building for almost an hour and half because I was so scared it would go off again. And I live on the 6th floor, so it was I had to go down the stairs with 300 really loud, scared kids. It was awful. I HATE the fire alarm...

Let's carry on this thread - I want to write this:-

When I was at the Infant's school, I used to cry when the firebell went - but it wasn't at all because of the noise. It was because I used to think there was an actual fire, and I've always hated fires (except for bonfires, they're different). But ever since I was about 4 I've always feared fires in buildings, so that's why I used to cry when the firebell went. When I got to Juniors school, I made myself not cry at the firebell, and I didn't. I knew it wasn't a real fire, and I had learnt to adapt to the firebell rules.
When I got to high school, I used to laugh at the firebell. I used to shout wit joy, like all the other kids did, and I didn't mind walkng past the bells in the corridors because they were already constantly ringing, so there was nothing to make me jump. (In fact, I used to like it).

But even to this day I would still hate to see a building burn down. I think I'll freak out or something. I've always been afraid of my house going on fire, and I'll loose all my possessions, because they are so unique. My teddy bear for example - I would never want him to burn because I'll never find another one like him, and he's always been there for me since I was 8 months old (I'm being honest here). Also if my computer got burnt I'll loose all my favourites, and it's difficult to get them again, since I forgotten the addresses to them (that's why i saved them in favourites). Also my clothes - I love my clothes. And my piano-keyboard, and all my DVDs and books (some I might not be able to get again in any shops).
So every night I go around checking to see if all the plugs are turned off before going to bed, ad I make sure the smoke alarm is working, and I smell everything to see if it smells like it's about to explode. I know it's going over the top but it's a big phobia I've got. I'll rather die than loose my family, pets, home and possessions. Ohh, I WISH fires weren't true

I've always been afraid of fire alarms, still am today! Just the thought of the sounds gives me goosebumps, let alone actually hearing the sounds... I can't even bring myself to pull up a fire alarm video on YouTube. Every school I attended K-12 had loud buzzers, except for one high school I attended for a year... that one had the smaller ones that sounded like your typical household smoke alarm (beep-beep-beep). The rest of my high school time was in a newly-built facility with loud buzzers - and strobes. Back in the latter part of elementary school, we had a very good principal, one who became aware of my fear of/sensitivity to the fire alarm. When a fire drill was scheduled, he would call me out of class a few minutes beforehand, and I'd go far out into the yard (the schoolyard was massive), then wait for everybody to come pouring out of the doors... that was about the only time I'd hear the alarm.

More recently, I was at the mall with my father-in-law, and it just happened to be the day that a crew was working on the sprinkler system, as announced on the paging system, which would cause the fire alarm to sound - my anxiety absolutely skyrocketed after that announcement. This alarm was like a siren... we were eating lunch at that moment, and I just about spit root beer across the table when the alarm sounded. Another recent incident was on my business travels - last year my employer acquired a bankrupt/mismanaged radio station, which at the time was in a multi-tenant building. My boss & I visited the studios, and also coincidentally, the fire alarm system was being tested that day. Every time the alarm sounded (these were bells at this building) the main operations guy at the station could see a terrified look on my face - turns out his six-year-old son is on the autism spectrum, and the ops guy had a good feeling that I'd be on the spectrum too. I so badly wanted to get out and wait until the alarm crew was gone.

I have a fear of the emergency broadcasting signal that plays on the radio when there's a tornado warning...