Fire alarms

Randomness alert!

Scientific experiments with lab rats and the like can study how certain sounds effect animals and how to train them to use those sounds as a cue, e.g. when rat hears bell it gets food and therefore it eventually associates the bell stimulus with food.

Aaaaaaaanyway my point. This morning, not for the first time, my housemate set the fire alarm off cooking at stupid hours. Ever since first year when fire drills were carried out, I have reacted to every single fire alarm in the same way: I wake up, leap out of bed in a almost frantic fashion, find my dressing gown and get out the room. Normal behaviour you might say. This morning however I threw my covers off, leapt out of bed in the usual manner and when I'd come back from turning the alarm off on the ground floor I was actually shaking from the adrenaline rush. Again maybe normal behaviour (I don't know, reactions to fire alarms don't usually come up in conversation!). Might sound odd but I'm beginning to think my reaction to the sound of the fire alarm is my brain sort of "training" itself to that particular sound like the rat and the bell.

Obviously if someone sets it off in the middle of the day I don't suddenly jump up and find my dressing gown This reaction only occurs if I've been in a deep sleep (or semi-deep otherwise I wouldn't hear the alarm at all ). I don't react well to loud noises in general so am wondering if my body reacting to the fire alarm is actually me being scared of the noise? It's possible I react like I do because I desperately want to get downstairs and turn it off


Am I just reading too much into it? Does everyone else have this reaction? Am I just weird?....ok don't answer that, I know it already

Originally Posted by missyorkie_chris

This morning however I threw my covers off, leapt out of bed in the usual manner and when I'd come back from turning the alarm off on the ground floor I was actually shaking from the adrenaline rush.

You forgot your dressing gown! Thread, picutres, worthless... etc.

TBH, I reckon you're fretting too much about it. The alarm went off, you were out of bed & it got turned off. If you'd not been aware the alarm was going off, then it'd be cause for concern. Think if it were a real fire & you didn't wake up!

[timwilky]

Hmmm, years ago I was staying in a brothel at a place called Shajaio, near Dongguan in China. My first night, I was woken by a loud bell at about 4am. Grabbed a pair of pants and walked onto the corridor expecting to see all leaving. Noone.

So back to bed and at breakfast at 5. I ask about the bell. It is to notify the start of shift at the factory 3ft from the pathetic window to my room. Well after that I got accustomed to alarms.

However, Years ago I installed smoke detectors and my eldest aged about 6 at the time went hysterical. She was adamant we were going to have a fire in the house as we needed detectors to tell us when. Silly, but who knows how children think

Your over thinking it, you have the right reaction for once you hear the alarm!

We have a fire alarm test at work every friday at 12.45, however every friday i jump out of my skin when i hear the alarm goes off.

However when they do a drill, or when it actually does go off, we are all that use to hearing the alarm that we all just sit there for a min or two until it isn't switched off to......... then we decided that it isn't just a test!

Originally Posted by timwilky

However, Years ago I installed smoke detectors and my eldest aged about 6 at the time went hysterical. She was adamant we were going to have a fire in the house as we needed detectors to tell us when. Silly, but who knows how children think

I was just educating our 4 year old about the smoke detectors yesterday. He now knows that whenever the alarm goes off, he's allowed to jump on our bed to make sure we're awake - so he loves the idea of the house being on fire.

Originally Posted by Baph

Think if it were a real fire & you didn't wake up!

My other housemate didn't wake up for the last one, he is now worried. Am yet to find out if he heard this morning's lol.

Originally Posted by lily

however every friday i jump out of my skin when i hear the alarm goes off.

If you ask YC or most people that know me well, I jump out of my skin at most things

Originally Posted by lily

However when they do a drill, or when it actually does go off, we are all that use to hearing the alarm that we all just sit there for a min or two until it isn't switched off to......... then we decided that it isn't just a test!

We suffer from similar in work.

The policy here is 4pm on a Monday, test the fire alarm. We're so used to it that it's untrue.

There's been times when the security guard has burnt his toast downstairs, and we just sit & wait for him to turn it off.

There was also a genuine fire here not that long ago. Again, we sat at our desks assuming someone was making toast. Then the boss came over "This isn't a drill, there is a fire downstairs, however, remain at your desks until you're instructed otherwise." I just grabbed my helmet & my jacket & walked past him with the phrase "Health & Safety, sack me if you like."

[Paul the 6th]

I nearly had a heart attack once when I was in a deep sleep and my mate burst through the door at 4 in the morning, off his head as usual after a night out. Adrenaline was pumping like mad and I was shaking...

(check this out: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=a3NxGDZKP2s)

I think you might be starting to associate the fire alarm with burnt food strangely enough, when I was younger I got a voicemail giving me some really bad news and my heart sank into my stomach, I felt sick etc... now, everytime my phone rings and it says "voicemail" on the screen, I still get a really anxious feeling until the voicemail starts playing, even though it's about 10 years since... Wierd, I know

Originally Posted by Paul the 6th

I think you might be starting to associate the fire alarm with burnt food

I think it's more me associating it with my tit of a housemate #shakes fist#

Originally Posted by missyorkie_chris

I have reacted to every single fire alarm in the same way: I wake up, leap out of bed in a almost frantic fashion, find my dressing gown and get out the room.

On a more serious note, and having spent many, many, many hours listening to professional opinion on fire (don't ask...) my intial reaction to this is untrain yourself PDQ. You're probalby safer staying in your room with the door well shut until you've been able to get a handle on where thr source of the fire/smoke is coming from - you could actually put yourself in considerable danger by opening the door and allowing fire/smoke in and air out. Unless it's your bed that's on fire, that is!