Some day we are going to laugh about this incident again :) A normal Saturday morning was suddenly interrupted with deafening fire alarms in our unit. And I hadnt even started cooking! ;-) It was however a cause of concern because the units are equipped with 2 types of fire detectors - a smoke detector that alerts the residents to smoke(usually the one to go off with Indian cooking) and the heat detector - that is louder and more deafening accompanied by clanging bells that remind you the temple bells ringing during aarti darshan. The heat detector directly sets off the alarms at the fire station and only the firemen can stop the cacophony while you can stop the smoke detectors by waving a wet cloth or opening all possible windows/doors in the house. Our source of knowledge about these 2 types of fire detectors was the inspector who performed the annual fire alarm inspection at our house last August. Anyway back to the story :)
The heat detector setting off caused Somnath and me to react instinctively. Grabbing my handbag, rushed downstairs checking everything enroute that everything was ok in our unit. Stepped out to see other neighbours pointing to our house and saying 'its from this unit'. I explained to them that we had checked everything inside the unit and things seemed ok. That's when they said that since these are townhouses, all the four houses in the unit are wired together. A problem in any of the units can trigger off the alarm. Lin who is our Chinese neighbour(and a Microsoft workalcoholic :) ) was at work as usual. The family next to her unit (Morne, Maya and baby Rami) came out too. In a couple of seconds they said that the alarm was set off by the unit at the very end next to their. An Indian couple that was going to buy the end unit was advised by their house inspector to "test" the fire alarm and that was what caused all the racket. Within minutes 2 fire engines arrived at our doorstep with sirens wailing. Morne suddenly realised that it was a Kodak moment and started clicking snaps of the firemen. An attempt to place little Rami in the arms on a firefighter for a snap resulted in him crying louder than all the alarms :) He was however gifted a nice red firefighter hat by the firemen. A very sheepish looking and embarrased Kirthika and Ashwin introduced themselves to all of us. A mighty costly introduction once they receive the penalty bill from the Fire department. Thank God it was a false alarm and not a real fire in which case I wouldnt be blogging it. But the good thing was we came to know all the neighbours since we knew only Lin before and met all the friendly firefighters :)
The heat detector setting off caused Somnath and me to react instinctively. Grabbing my handbag, rushed downstairs checking everything enroute that everything was ok in our unit. Stepped out to see other neighbours pointing to our house and saying 'its from this unit'. I explained to them that we had checked everything inside the unit and things seemed ok. That's when they said that since these are townhouses, all the four houses in the unit are wired together. A problem in any of the units can trigger off the alarm. Lin who is our Chinese neighbour(and a Microsoft workalcoholic :) ) was at work as usual. The family next to her unit (Morne, Maya and baby Rami) came out too. In a couple of seconds they said that the alarm was set off by the unit at the very end next to their. An Indian couple that was going to buy the end unit was advised by their house inspector to "test" the fire alarm and that was what caused all the racket. Within minutes 2 fire engines arrived at our doorstep with sirens wailing. Morne suddenly realised that it was a Kodak moment and started clicking snaps of the firemen. An attempt to place little Rami in the arms on a firefighter for a snap resulted in him crying louder than all the alarms :) He was however gifted a nice red firefighter hat by the firemen. A very sheepish looking and embarrased Kirthika and Ashwin introduced themselves to all of us. A mighty costly introduction once they receive the penalty bill from the Fire department. Thank God it was a false alarm and not a real fire in which case I wouldnt be blogging it. But the good thing was we came to know all the neighbours since we knew only Lin before and met all the friendly firefighters :)