posted
It was somewhere around 5 in the morning on Sunday. I'd crashed into bed about an hour before that, not bothering to change out of my miniskirt, tights, and grey sweater. I was that exhausted.
But not too tired to spring up quickly when the strobe light flashed its piercing brightness throughout our room, accompanied by a loud repeated buzz that could only mean one thing - a FIRE ALARM!!
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Scrabbling for my room key and purse, I hollered at Josh, who was in the other bed. "It's a FIRE ALARM! We have to get out of here!"
Josh murmured some sort of assent, but failed to do anything useful. I couldn't find my key. I figured Josh would know where his was. I kept telling him this was a FIRE ALARM, and we Had To Get Out of Here.
Finally, he seemed to comprehend that an unusual situation was occurring, and he grabbed his key. Docilely, he followed me out of the building. I got the distinct impression he was just humoring me, but I figured I wasn't going to be responsible for my roommate burning up in his sleep.
We were some of the first to arrive outside, just as a police car drove up. It was soon followed by two fire trucks.
More people came pouring out of the hotel, and the Moose family was amongst them, much to my relief. I was pretty nervous about the kidlets. Mooselet's eyes were bright and shiny. His grin was one of the cutest things I have ever seen. Poor Papa Moose looked like a martyr. He was tired and achy from being a Hero Daddy and scooping up his kids to save them. But Mooselet's delight was a sight worth getting up in the middle of the night for.
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I spent the first 30 seconds kneeling in bed, trying to figure out what the heck was flashing me in the face, and how I could bludgeon the person directing it (there was a light right above the bed).
I didn't wake up until Vána turned the light on and said, "It's a fire alarm. Put on some shoes."
posted
Wow - this tells me something I didn't know. The wheelchair/handicap accessible rooms aren't the only ones being equipped with strobe lights in the room.
It makes sense. It's pretty obvious why they're useful for deaf or people who are hard of hearing - and that's a bigger portion of the population than of those who use wheelchairs. Not only that, most, maybe all people who use hearing aids take them out at night. So it makes sense to put strobes in more and more rooms.
No matter how annoying that is when the alarm is a false one.
I called the front desk to ask them if there was a real fire. I was told that someone had used the wrong door, setting the fire alarm off. The message was clear - don't bother to go to bed. And go right back to sleep with that strobe light flashing. Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Strobe light alarms are cool. I was at the Indiana State fair youth Leadership conference this week (why I couldn't go to kamacon). It was held at the Indiana School for the deaf by the fairgrounds. Our dorm rooms had lights for fire alarms, storm alarms, and a doorbell, all different colors. The tv always played closed captioned, and the radio in the lounge looked like a karioke machine, that played the words on a screen.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Actually, sndrake, we were in a handicap accessable room, as they originally had put me, Lime, and Theca all in a room with only one bed. So we got moved, and that was what was available.
Sorry to ruin your theory! Posts: 3214 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Was Jenny in your room? If not was that an accessible room too?
I still get points for calling the desk for asking if it was a real fire, though.
(But, to be honest, I guess I don't deserve them - my groggy brain was thinking we were on the fourth floor instead of the first - so I was going to tell them one of us couldn't exit via the stairs if it was a real fire.)
Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I have no recollection of any alarms going off. I vaguely remember celia saying the phrase fire alarm, but it felt so nice just to lay my head back down...::snore::
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
<grin> poor Celia got abused by me during the fire alarm. I rolled over and kicked her out of bed cause in my delusional state I thought Steve had set the alarm clock for some weird hour or something and I was going to kick his rear. (Then I remembered where I was and realized it was Celia!)
posted
Soooo? was their a fire? Did a Kama-kaze mistakenly hit the fire alarm in their exhausted state? Was it a haunting of unnatural proportion? Did you all get back to sleep?
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
We stood outside in the pre-dawn. Another relief came when I saw TomD and Christy pushing the baby carriage out from the hotel. Most of the Hatrackers were present, but some were conspicuously missing. I had visions of them sweating and putting wet towels under their doors, or being roasted alive in their beds.
However, the firefighters were not rushing about like mad beings, so I figured it wasn't anything too awful yet.
Finally, an officer came out and motioned for everyone to go back to bed.
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Now, we already knew the fire alarm was all Noah's fault. By his own admission, he had pushed the button to the elevator door right before the alarm sounded and the elevator itself locked up. He had smelled something like smoke when the elevator door opened.
Being a good boy, he told all this to the policeman who had first arrived on the scene.
So of course he asked what all the trouble had been about. We learned that all the fuss was about - balloons.
Yes, folks, some innocent child had lost his ballons and they tripped the laser that set off the smoke alarm.
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
In a fit of logic, I figured that as long as the hotel sprinklers didn't turn on staying in bed was the best policy. Though I was so out of it I went right back to sleep.
quote: Most of the Hatrackers were present, but some were conspicuously missing. I had visions of them sweating and putting wet towels under their doors, or being roasted alive in their beds.
*cough* Well, actually, some of us had figured it was probably a false alarm. And besides, we were in the middle of a great game of Cranium! When the alarm kept going, we started to go out -- but the security guy in the hall said it was a false alarm.
We merely rolled our eyes when it went off (far more briefly) several more times.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yeah, it was only 5:00 am. Why would we be in our beds? You should have pictured us roasted alive in the hospitality room...
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Nonono! The fact that someone else set off the false fire alarm means that we weren't the loudest guests in the hotel!
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I remember I actually slept the best that night...to say the least...I didn't wake up. I guess that means I'd be dead? It's rather interesting though, I always wake up to fire alarms, and Mayday is a rather light sleeper, very odd especially with the point that I woke up four hours later to my extremely quiet cell phone alarm immediatly (mind you I didn't actually do anything about it)...maybe I should call and tell them to check the alarm in the room we stayed in... Satyagraha
Posts: 359 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I had to punch Ryuko in the leg a few times to wake her up. Then she insisted I was lying about the fire alarm until I opened the window curtain to show her the fire truck outside. Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
I wasn't too happy about being roused out of my bed at that point by my mom (Farmgirl) and out into the chilly morning in my tank top and capris, but thankfully Theca had some jackets in her car and she let me borrow one. Plus I wasn't given time to put my contacts in, plus I left my glasses at home, and I have 20/600 vision, so I couldn't see a THING!!!! I couldn't make out who was there or not, so I wasn't that worried, although I didn't think there was as many blobs as there should've been........
Well, we've arrived safe at home finally, although Mom got a little carsick (while driving!) and I had to finish up the last three miles after driving two hours of it (which was LOADS of fun with people always passing me going fifteen miles per hour over the speed limit ), but we're otherwise unharmed.
posted
The alarm wasn't going off in our room, so at first I just thought someone wasn't turning off their alarm clock. I remember someone going to the door and saying that it was a fire alarm. I'd never been in a hotel when a fire alarm was going, so I got sort of worried, and finally convinced Mike to go with me outside (probably because I was pacing and he knew he wasn't going to get any sleep anyway). Once outside I said hi and smiled at a nice lady I thought was kat, but appartently wasn't since I found out the next day she didn't go down for it. At first it was exciting, seeing everyone and wondering what had happened. That lasted about 5 minutes, then I really wanted to go to bed, which eventually we got to do, and the adventure ended.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yeah. Nada. Don't remember a thing. I was in my room, in bed, and heard about the ruckus in the morning. Never heard a sound, never woke up, never saw any of these "flashing lights", didn't get the see the adorable Mooselet, nothing.
I now humbly ask Hatrackers that in the event of the real fire, brush a little bit of it across my toes. Just enough to wake me up. Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Seeing how many people either slept through or stood on their balconies looking out, I really think hotels should have some kind of fire-safety leaders that go around by floor letting people know what is going on.
For my part, I went rushing around the hotel room with Tom looking for what that stupid buzzing noise was. The best moment, though, was when Tom picked up the iron thinking it was making the noise. Finally I opened the door and looked out in the hall because we couldn't find anything in the room making the racket.
Posts: 1777 | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
It woke me up. I remember feeling annoyed that the alarm clock was going off, and wondering why I had set it when I could sleep in. Never occured to me that it might be the fire alarm. I am unsure if I was sleeping on the bed or the couch at this time, but I fell back asleep pretty quickly.
Posts: 72 | Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Personally.. (putting on my best motherly voice) ... I thought many people didn't take this NEARLY seriously enough.
Yes, I was aware it was probably a false alarm, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't go through all the proper steps. What if it HAD been a fire?
The fire department did actually show up and do the floor-to-floor sweep of the building to see if there was a fire. Obviously they weren't too excited, which tells me that false alarms for this building are not uncommon.
Since I'm in charge of fire emergency plans for where I work, it really bugs me when people don't take alarms or even drills, seriously. That's how people get hurt when there are real fires...
And normally I would say the WORSE thing to do is call the front desk -- they are very very busy at the time working their own fire procedures and trying to determine if there is actually a blaze. However, Stephen, in your case I understand taking that route.
Have to razz fiazko -- she had just told me earlier in the day that if her house ever caught fire, the one and only thing she would grab would be her camera -- a special gift to her from her dad...; then when we had the fire alarm, she forgot to grab it..
posted
Personally, I'm almost completely certain that the alarm didn't go off in my room, Mayday is a light sleeper, and I always wake up to high pitched noises, both of us slept right through. Satyagraha
Posts: 359 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
The other logical thought I managed before conking back out, was that if it had been in the hospitality room they would come and found me since I was liable for the crisis.
posted
I remember hearing Jenny's words about a fire alarm and not processing them at all. I think the thing that arroused my attention was when she actually told me to do something, "grab your room key." I wandered out (well, we actually got out of there pretty quick, but I was still asleep...) following Jenny, to where a few had gathered out front. I can't tell you who was out there, I said Hi a few times, but I was still rather asleep.
I didn't grab my laptop bag as I ran out. Just my wallet and glasses off the night stand. The only thing I remember thinking is that would be ok, if not, my iBook isn't working right anyways. I think I was spiting NuKua for being faulty. I wish I would have grabbed her, cause I do have my passport and other such in that bag.
Posts: 2102 | Registered: Dec 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Sure we were on the fourth floor, in the middle of the hotel, and we just sat there for like five minutes, so if it was a real fire we would be toast, but hey, i think we won that game. (i say we, but i was very little use to my team)
Posts: 2332 | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yeah, mack was all poking me and annoying me and I was POSITIVE she was making up the whole fire thing. Then I finally looked out the window and saw the fire truck, and said, "F***."
But it was all good. I got to hold a sleepy Mooselet. Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
So we got moved, and that was what was available.![[No No]](graemlins/nono.gif)
![[Sleep]](graemlins/sleep.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
), but we're otherwise unharmed. ![[Blushing]](graemlins/blushing.gif)
At first it was exciting, seeing everyone and wondering what had happened. That lasted about 5 minutes, then I really wanted to go to bed, which eventually we got to do, and the adventure ended.
![[Monkeys]](graemlins/monkeys.gif)
![[Evil]](graemlins/evil.gif)
