NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 43

GUTTER CREDIT
iSTOCKPHOTO

VIEWPOINTS ON FIRE
AND LIFE SAFETY

that the strobes and speakers were
not going off in the terminal itself. My
training as a fire safety professional
began to kick in, and a few things
quickly became obvious. The terminal
was not separated from the connector
by a fire-rated separation. The terminal
was zoned separately on the notification system. There was no alert message
in adjacent zones. And people working
in the area, including airline employees,
contractors, and security, didn't seem to
respond to the alarm at all.
At this point my curiosity got the
best of me. I waited in the terminal
(with an exit door at the gate behind
me), near the connector where I could
see and hear the alarm, and I watched.
A few people looked up at the strobes,
but aside from that nobody seemed to
behave any differently than normal.

This was true for both the general
public and airport employees. Crowds
of people kept right on walking into
the connector area where the alarms
were going off, only stopping to read
the arrival and departure screens. Even
the skycaps pushing passengers in
wheelchairs kept on going. This continued for about 10 or 15 minutes, until
the alarms stopped with no further
announcement.
This reaction, or lack thereof, was
concerning, not so much as it applied
to the general public, which I expected,
but how it described the behavior of
airport personnel. Ever the optimist,
I thought maybe airport employees
had behaved the way they had because
they possessed more information about
what had triggered the alarm than the
general public. I still had some time

before my flight-a one-hour delay
that eventually stretched to two-so I
decided to ask some questions.
The first stop was the information
booth in the middle of the connector
area where the alarms had been going
off. The attendant was quick to dismiss
the event as a false alarm. When I
asked how he knew it was false, he had
a ready answer. "This happens from
time to time, and nobody does anything
different," he told me. I asked how he
would know if a real fire were occurring, and he responded, "I suppose I'd
get a call..."
The next stop was my gate. I decided
to check with the gate agent to see
if she had heard anything about the
source of the alarm. She hadn't, but she
mentioned that they did experience fire
alarms a few times a week, including
N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

| 43



http://nfpa.org/journal

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - September/October 2017

Contents
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - BB1
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - BB2
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - Cover1
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - Cover2
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 1
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - Contents
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 3
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 4
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 5
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 6
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 7
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 8
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 9
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 10
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 11
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 12
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 13
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 14
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 15
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 16
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 16a
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 16b
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 17
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 18
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 19
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 20
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 21
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 22
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 23
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 24
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 25
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 26
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 27
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 28
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 29
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 30
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 31
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 32
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 33
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 34
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 35
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 36
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 37
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 38
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 39
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 40
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 41
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 42
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 43
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 44
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 45
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 46
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 47
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 48
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 49
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 50
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 51
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 52
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 53
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 54
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 55
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NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 58
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NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 61
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NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 71
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NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 73
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 74
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NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 87
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 88
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - Cover3
NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - Cover4
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