The Student Room Group

Are fire alarms in the middle of the night common in halls?

Hi,

Everyone I've talked to says that one of the worst things about living in halls is the false fire alarms at 3am, and opinion on TSR seems to agree. I was wondering though, how common is common? Are we talking multiple times per week, month? Do you just get used to it after a while? Is there any way to lessen the pain of dragging yourself out of bed at 3am? I can't imagine trying to sleep if they're that common.

Thanks

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
Its pretty pot luck on how often alarms go off. My friend stayed in halls in the 'party building' at my uni and she said if you went a couple of days without a fire alarm through the night then you were extremely lucky.
I stayed in the mature student flats and there was an alarm every week just as a test which for some reason had to always be at 7 in the mornin every thursday.
Reply 2
I'm supposedly in 'quiet' halls yet some idiot manages to set it off at least once a week, usually when I'm either taking a nap or in the shower
I only had one in the whole of last year. It was a royal pain in the arse mind at 4.30am the morning before a double maths lecture at 9am. Add to that the whole block had to stand outside for 20 minutes in the freezing cold whilst the warden came to sort it out.
Reply 4
When I was in halls last year it was at least once a week, sometimes more. Usually drunk people making toast. To be fair, once or twice it was because somebody had actually set something on fire (mostly toast again but with actual flames, but once someone put their cardboard recycling on top of the hob and left the hob on...:rolleyes: )

Get a dressing gown and some slippers; saves having to go out and shivering in your pyjamas. Amazing how many people would come out with nothing on their feet and wearing no top (well, the guys anyway)-even in the snow. :s-smilie: Even if it is a fire you're not going to die in the two seconds it takes you to shove your feet in a pair of shoes and grab the nearest bit of clothing.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 5
As said, it's totally down to luck. When I was in halls in my first year we didn't have ANY fire alarms (apart from one actual drill by the housing office) at all, but friends had them a couple of times a week throughout the year from people setting them off accidentally.

To be honest I don't think the alarms actually worked!
In my experience, I've had maybe 3/4 a year. Sometimes, those were late night [but before midnight], other times they were in the middle of the night. I've also had a couple that were at around 5am - super awkward when you have to be up at 6am [I've ended up staying awake].

It will depend on the people in the block, obviously, but it isn't something I would worry about. Just remember to grab a coat/hoodie/shoes if you do get one - being outside at 3am in the freezing cold is not fun lol. :redface:
Next week is my last week at uni, and we've still only had one fire alarm all year, and it was during freshers week before everyone realised the toasters don't pop up automatically.
It happened to me 6 times... so nothing to worry about really.

3 times during Freshers and then it never happened and then 3 times again when people were starting to leave halls.
Reply 9
There was one time it happened 3 times in the same night. It was freezing outside and raining a little which was the only saving grace, because having to wait for the campus staff to come around and turn off the alarm everytime was too much... was a good time to cuddle someone outside though.
They threatened us all with expulsion if we set the fire alarm off on purpose, so people didn't. All the fire alarms we did have were due to someone cooking (although there was an actual, small, fire once). The frequency of the fire alarms decreased through the year as people learned to cook better, and they very rarely happened in the middle of the night, because people very rarely cooked in the middle of the night.
I'd say I probably got woken up by the fire alarm 10-20 times in first year, and it went off loads through the day (so much so that everyone just stopped going outside when it went off), fortunately it doesn't bother me too much. Just depends! Happened a lot more at the beginning of the year, nearer the end we could go for weeks without one.
Reply 12
Original post by flanders
Hi,

Everyone I've talked to says that one of the worst things about living in halls is the false fire alarms at 3am, and opinion on TSR seems to agree. I was wondering though, how common is common? Are we talking multiple times per week, month? Do you just get used to it after a while? Is there any way to lessen the pain of dragging yourself out of bed at 3am? I can't imagine trying to sleep if they're that common.

Thanks


They're not that common really!! In the first couple of weeks they are more so, because people still haven't worked out that you can't like...smoke in your room, or shower with the door open, or iron next to the smoke detector and things like that.
After the first month or so they're pretty rare, we had I'd say 4 or 5 in the first fortnight but this semester I think we've only had one, because a girl tried to microwave one of those hottie toys for 10 minutes.
I wouldn't worry about it to be honest it's not unbearable, kinda funny most of the time.
Reply 13
It seems to be very much down to luck, to the extent that it is probably not even the same halls from year to year that get the fire alarms. In my halls last year my block only had one or two alarms throughout the year, but the block opposite me seemed to eternally have one going off. You can't tell which it will be until you live there, though.
Am I the only person who keeps a survival kit at the side of the bed :tongue:
Reply 15
At my first halls, they were ridiculously frequent. Then you'd have to spend half an hour outside in the cold while they checked it out, or longer. They did loads of drills as well, inevitably after a heavy night. The alarms must have been faulty cause they went off loads during the day as well, I'd ignore them at times But at my second halls I never once heard the fire alarm, we didn't have drills or anything.
Reply 16
Original post by barkyface
At my first halls, they were ridiculously frequent. Then you'd have to spend half an hour outside in the cold while they checked it out, or longer. They did loads of drills as well, inevitably after a heavy night. The alarms must have been faulty cause they went off loads during the day as well, I'd ignore them at times But at my second halls I never once heard the fire alarm, we didn't have drills or anything.



In my boyfriends halls the alarms were ultra sensitive so hairdryer, hair spray or even if steam fron the showers would set it off :/
We had maybe 6 or 7 in the whole year - one at 6am but the others were all at more civilised times- mostly around 6pm when people were cooking dinner. It was tested every Friday at 2pm but we weren't expected to go outside for that.
had about 5 this year most of them in the early evening.

However the fire drill that they did about 3 weeks into the year was at half 5 in the morning.
I happen to be a very unlucky person in regards to the fire alarm. Most halls don't have them very often, and they're normally quite short.
However, I said i'm really unlucky. Ours goes off more than normal (compared to all the other halls on campus) and its really starting to bother us.

A couple of weeks ago, it went off every night between 3 and 4.30 for a week. it went off again a couple of days ago. It bothers me when it goes off soo much, so much so this is why i'm still awake. However, this is unusual for this to happen.

With our university, i'm not sure about any others, there is a set fine for not evacuating. however, I don't believe anyone has been fined and not everyone goes outside.

Latest