Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:21 am
When I grew up it was all bells or buzzers, depending on the school. All the schools I went to were conscientious about holding their fire drills. If you sat by the window in class it was your job to close the window when the fire alarm went off before lining up to evacuate. In one of my schools the first student in line (always a patootie smooching toady) carried the class flag that the rest of us rallied on.
Now it's mostly uniform. Fire alarms in buildings are governed by NFPA 72, the National Fire Alarm Code. It details what kind of signals are allowed and when voice alarm and command post stations are required. I don't know the details of it, not being a designer, but the code manual is $50 from NFPA in Boston.
I wonder what things have changed since 9/11.