Careless cooking: A reason for the sirens…
22
November
11/23/2008:
I truly believe that I have listened to the Hoboken411 Live Police and Fire Action Channel more hours than I’ve actually been awake the past three years (I can actually hear it in my sleep quite often!)
Where do those fire trucks go?
With that being said – all that time I’ve logged monitoring the airwaves has enabled me to become a bit of a self-proclaimed expert at a few things in town. One of them is the reasons why we have sirens constantly speeding by our narrow streets.
In no official order – Here are what I believe are some of the top reasons for false alarms:
- Careless cooking (as you can see in the picture below). Burnt food, falling asleep with pizza in the oven, or just plain absent-mindedness can set off the fire alarms – and send 1/2 the fire trucks to your house.
- Construction – Whether it’s “dust” (sawdust, chemicals, even steam) or a careless worker knocking a sensor – it happens often.
- Weather – Heavy rains are usually the culprit, with leaks and floods setting off the alarms
I know I’m leaving some off (again writing this at the crack of dawn) – but another reason I feel they respond to many calls is the fact that centrally monitored alarms systems and companies send the call to the HFD. Correct me if I’m wrong – but I think by law, the Hoboken Fire Department has to respond to every call. I’ve overheard that even in instances where the homeowner calls and says it was an accident – they still have to send at least one or two units to be on the safe side.
Here’s a really smoky careless cooking incident over at the Curling Club recently. In this particular call – quite a bit of smoke was vented from the apartment, but everything turned out fine.
5 Responses to ** Careless cooking: A reason for the sirens… **
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November 22nd 2008 - 14:54:51 |
I wonder if that was a Stevens housing unit. It seems like their alarms go off a few times a day.
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November 22nd 2008 - 15:11:56 |
Once the alarm sounds, it has to be checked by the pros and it can become a liability problem if they don’t
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November 22nd 2008 - 20:33:19 |
Sirens I can deal with- hey emergencies happen and need to be dealt with asap. But I can’t deal with truck drivers leaning on thier airhorns on Saturday morning for 10 minutes because some idiot misparked on the corner.
Anyone who lives near 12th and Hudson and was around at 9:20am-ish knows what I am talking about.
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November 22nd 2008 - 21:08:38 |
Stevens should have its own spot on the list.
When are people going to learn you don’t need to pop every single kernel??
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November 22nd 2008 - 22:10:22 |
The HFD has to make a return trip if they find a fault in a building fire alarm system. For example, after a harsh rain storm, some water leaked through our roof doorway and into an electronic smoke detector in the common area. The smoke detector went off and our central monitoring system summoned HFD. We had to replace the smoke detector immediately before tracing and fixing the leak. They called me back the next day to schedule a visit to make sure we replaced it. They’re quite thorough. Luckily, we traced the leak and repaired it before the next heavy rain.
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