Fire Drills...
Recently my school had a fire drill, and I got the chance to see what a Pertronic F120A looks like in Evac Mode, and to be honest, I was disappointed.
First off, I am very interested in Fire Alarms in general, such as Notifier series panels in the US and (Canada?), or the Australian/New Zealand fire panels around where I live.
My school has a Pertronic F120A for the Fire Alarm system, and it happens to be one of my favorite panels in my area (F220). I have actually operated a F100A about a year ago as it was in isolation for three weeks!
But my school also happens to have an Upland Block which actually has a completely different fire alarm system, it actually has a MX1 panel!
Despite being different brands, and different systems, as far as I'm aware, they are interconnected.
One of the cooler things about my school is that there is a mimic panel (No Display) with the FireMap on it. This is actually where I sit at my breaks, because it has somewhat good WiFi (it's a school so it's pretty much terrible anywhere here) and the Fire Mimic!
Despite the time I've been here, I haven't actually had a Fire Drill, or a real/false alarm.
Anyway, about a week ago, I asked my teacher, "Have we actually had a fire drill this year yet?" and he actually didn't seem to think we did at all this year, but then he said that we are having one next week.
Then yesterday I was talking with some friends when the fire drill came back up and turns out another one of my friends actually knew about the drill and when it was happening, then I asked a different teacher, and she happened to say it was going to be on Tuesday (today)
So this morning we got to homeroom, and our teacher said we were having a Fire Drill and would be having it in a few minutes. One of the things that actually confuses me is why we didn't do it later in the day, but I guess that there should be different people at different times which is why I do think we actually have had a drill already this year, but anyway.
I said to him, "Can I take an alternative route to the meeting point?" and he said as long as you are there, it's fine.
Then over the intercom, my principal says that we will be having a Fire Drill and it will be going off in a minute (the microphone is on the panel so he was likely controlling it.)
Once he finished speaking, about 30 seconds later, the standard Pertronic fire alarm sound starting going off through the sounders. I was actually kinda disappointed by the fact they were super quiet indoors, however they were really tiny sounders (possibly non-standard?).
Anyway, I opened the door to exit the class, and sprinted over to the Fire Mimic and after all that, turns out Trial Evac just plays the sound and keeps the panel in Normal. I was quite disappointed by this as I was expecting it to either be in Defect, or no indicators like Tyco panels (I think)
We did have to go line up at our meeting point which did take forever (we were outside for like 15+ minutes), then we were let to our next period.
One of the things that actually annoyed me the most was that we hadn't actually been told what to do prior to the drill. Previously at old schools, before drills, we would be told where and what to do. Whereas here we just got told there was a drill and then they sounded it.
I guess it does make sense because there is like 100+ classes to go to, and during different times.
