The Oregonian Building- fire alarm 09.12.2009 Part 1

[paul9511]

The sprinklers probably wents off and flooded the library .

[paul9511]

Sorry, but it isn't a fire alarm. It's a Sprinkler alarm. The difference between sprinkler and fire alarms is the sprinkler alarm is just a water motor bell. The fire alarm is all a system, with detectors, control panel, pull stations, FD auto dialer, and ELECTRICS bells, and horns/strobes, or speakers. The fire alarm is used to evacuate, and call fire dept, while the sprinkler alarm (powered only by sprinkler water flow) is used only to alert staff.

[Prep1977]

@paul9511

Unfortunately the newspaper did not report on its own alarm, and I'll always call this type of alarm a fire alarm. Maybe that's why the fire department showed up instead of the sprinkler department.

[paul9511]

@Prep1977 Yep, but I forgot to precise that when there is a water flow in the sprinkler pipes (this flow powers the water motor bell, that's on the wall in the video), a flow switch on these pipes is also triggered, and because it's connected to the FACP (fire alarm control panel), the fire alarm also go off, the building is evacuated and the fire dept is automaticaly called. For the sprinkler company (the "sprinkler dept" don't exists !), it comes only for installation or maintenance.

[cindy1000000]

a fire alarm by a library i go to went off once and by the time i come out about just like over a hour later to go home it was still going off.

[trevordon1021]

What time did it turn off?

[Prep1977]

It stopped at about 7:15 am (see Part 2).

[pdxbrian]

the fucking alarm woke me up at 4:30ish. fuck them I even called 911 to tell them to fucking shut it off.