4 ms·
I don't know if I've ever experienced personal (home) fire alarms going off for no reason, and I've never had them go off because of an actual fire, but I have
by x1798DE 12y ago
I don't know if I've ever experienced personal (home) fire alarms going off for no reason, and I've never had them go off because of an actual fire, but I have had them go off when someone else is cooking (alerting me that someone is cooking, whether or not I knew that), or due to steam from a shower, if they are placed wrong - again, whether or not I knew someone was taking a shower.
In corporate/organizational environments - often in buildings made entirely of concrete - I've had them go off very frequently, but almost never as a result of a dangerous condition - usually either a drill, a small fire that was immediately put out, someone pulling the fire alarm as a prank/protest or something else like someone burning popcorn or something.
I still think the point stands.
- dllthomas 12y agoWhich point? My point was that in a (nonadversarial) context where you have known triggers for false alarms, P(problem|alarm) falls dramatically once you have identified the presence of such a trigger, and it's entirely reasonable for our actions to reflect this.