Interesting night last night fire alarm went off in hotel but...

Chronology of events:

00:10
In bed, fire alarm in room horn strobe sounds and flashes for about a second.

I'm up and dressed in 15 seconds then out the door taking my backpack with laptop and room key. No visible smoke in 2nd floor hall. Go to elevator, elevator working obviously the fire alarm does not go to ground floor on fire alarm.

00:15
No one else is in hallway on 2nd or on 1st floor. Talk to night manager. Asked if he had a fire alarm go into alarm. He said yes "It's on the 3rd floor. He said, "I silenced it."

I'm looking up into the balcony of the 3rd floor. No visible smoke. He and I go to the third floor using opposite stairwells. I get to the middle of the hall and smell electrical smoke and see a smoke detector is still in alarm. I tell the night manager and he smells it too and says he had better go down and call the fire department. I'm thinking , Good Move.
I take the elevator, he goes back to the stairwell. I go to my room, get my stuff and put it in the truck. I'm now moved out.

NO one and I mean no one else in the building is out of their room.
00:30
A car drives up and a guy wants a room. The night manager GETS HIM A FRIKKIN ROOM!
Still no call to the fire department.
00:45
The night manager starts to dial the fire dept. The hotel phones for some reason start ringing a weird constant ring and the guy punches buttons like crazy trying to stop the ring.

00:50 I'm getting worried and go back to the 3rd floor to check on the smoke to see if it has dissipated or is increasing. He follows me up there. I'm putting my hand on doors to try to feel if there is any heat coming from any rooms and don't feel any. The smoke is the same, not visible but very prominent in the area of the detector in alarm.

01:00 I asked if he called the fire department and he said...are you ready for this? "No."

I said, don't you have a procedure to follow on fire alarm? "No." Do you still smell smoke?
He said, "Yes." and went downstairs again. I thought well, OK he's going to cal the fire dept. now.
01:20 I'm on the 3rd floor and still no one else is out of their room it's just me and the manager. I'm watching the situation on the 3rd floor. No other smokes have gone into alarm. No visible smoke. Another guy shows up on the third floor. It's the maintenance guy for the hotel. He said he was at home asleep when he got called to come here.
01:45 STILL NO FRIKKIN FIRE DEPT!

I ask the maintenance guy if he has a printout of the occupancy to get people out he said, "No."
I go downstairs and the guy is talking to the fire dept on the phone. Over an hour later!




The fire department arrives, and arrives, and arrives, and arrives.







Now I'm totally out of the picture across the street watching this play out. I am still the only one in the building to evacuate. Another hour later the fire department starts peeling off trucks one at a time. The commander is still there as I'm walking back to the hotel that is not in flames. He said it was an electrical ballast that burnt up.

I really don't know what to think about this. They were lucky? I was over reactive? I was lucky?

Must be coincidence. Got up yesterday morning about 5:45 am. At about 6:00 am, the alarms in our hotel room go off. Open the door and the hallway alarms are going as well. Didn't see any smoke, so I changed from my "lounging clothes pants" into regular jeans that have my wallet, van keys, and hotel room key card.

Not many occupants in the hotel, I guess because there were only about 6 or 8 people outside. Went back inside because there was still no smoke and found a maintenance guy there. He said that apparently someone had "disabled" their room's smoke detector, which is probably what set off the alarms for the entire hotel.

I don't know enough about alarms to know whether that was true or not. At least I had a reason to get my morning coffee earlier than normal.

Stay off the elevator when fire/smoke alarms are going off.

Yeah, I know but I would be more of a liability on the stairs.

I have experienced the same. IN St. Louis, and Long Beach, CA, false alarms, I think one of them was caused by students. And then one actual fire in Atlanta. All three times, hotel staff did a good job of evacuating guests, and FD was on scene about the time I got out of the buildings. My hotel habits changed after the first, and now I am almost a fanatic about where I stay. I can probably remember the location of the fire exits from the last dozen hotels I've used.

I would have called 911 as soon as the alarms went off. Let the FD sort it out VS some dumb assed counter clerk that likely had zero training and didn’t want to piss off their boss.

That is a little odd. I was thinking commercial fire alarms auto notified an alarm company and they notify fire department. If you can't use the stairs during an active fire alarm then evacuate and don't continue to put yourself in potential dangerous situation.

Dealt with a large building in Lawton. About it used to be a hotel converted to apartments. If you have been to the mall area you have seen it. 99.9 % of the time fire department wasn't called as it was a false alarm. Every time they roll they charged. Panel went off it notified the monitoring company who called the owner to verify. I was on the 9th floor and would come down the stairs check the panel then go find the light. Verify no fire and then reset the panel and call the owner to let them know. Head one woman set it off from steam in the shower being key into the bedroom. She wasn't happy when I reached around the door and disconnected the chain lock from the outside. But at that point I was considered an extension of the fire department and had the right to enter.

Last I saw the building was shut down. Owner needed to fix the panel again while I was there and put it off. That amount other things and I left. That was in 2011 around this time of year. I had movedout of the building a year prior.

Most people ignore the alarms. Honestly if a building had an alarm going off and got are walking past are you going to make a call? How about if there is a big car accident and people are out walking around? Most people will assume it's nothing or someone else will call. However if you leave a box or bag somewhere before looking someone will call in a strange package ad it might be a bomb. But even then it probably sat there for a few hours first.

dennishoddy said:

I would have called 911 as soon as the alarms went off. Let the FD sort it out VS some dumb assed counter clerk that likely had zero training and didn’t want to piss off their boss.

Click to expand...

^^This. Not my problem if the hotel gets charged every time the FD is dispatched; I’m not going to risk mine or anyone else’s life to save them a few bucks.

I kinda didn't call the FD because I wanted to actually see what their SOP was. I didn't feel there was any immediate danger but over an hour? You kiddin me?

Sooooo, let's develop an actual SOP for this hotel business. I won't share it with them, I'd just like to see what you guys come up with.

Since it is not a UL Listed Central Station monitored system because it is manned 24/7, they are saving a monthly monitoring fee. You would think a national chain would have a written SOP for a fire alarm. Like I said, the guy said they didn't have one. True or not I don't know but I will find out.

The first thing I saw is this hotel did spend the money for a stand alone fire alarm not just a sprinkler waterflow and tamper monitored system. The smokes are of the verify type. This means they are smart smokes and do not go into alarm with just a puff of smoke. They self test after an initial alarm condition and verify the condition a second time of what the smoke detected in the first place. That or a second smoke seeing an alarm condition would turn on the alarm. With that feature in mind, it should be taken as gospel there is an actual physically dangerous condition and cause for the alarm.

I have my ideas but I want to see what your next step would be?