Pancakes and fire alarms

This evening at Trinity Youth Club (TYC) we decided to do pancakes. I know tonight is not Shrove Tuesday but next week is half term, so no youth group.

We split the whole group into three groups (5 in each) and while two groups played games in the hall. The first groups pancake making over ran a bit, so we ended up having the talk between the second and third groups pancake making, instead of at the end. During the second group I opened the door to let the heat/smoke escape, one of the children made the comment about the fire alarm going off. After the talk the third group were making pancakes, and during the talk we’d closed the door (it’s cold out, and not very safe to leave it open when not in that area). We’d forgotten to open it again, and hadn’t been aware of the smoke building up – alas the alarm went off! I was in the middle of washing up, and there was children still making pancakes. We knew exactly what the reason was, so we didn’t evacuate. This was at 8.45 and the club finishes are 9pm! So the alarm was going, and it was a big control box system, so once the alarm was set off it needed to be reset at the panel.

Normally the caretaker is about around this time, but he was away and someone else had come in to lock up. This poor man arrives to find the alarm going off! He didn’t know what to do. Since I’ve had experience with fire panels through work, I went and had a look, and worked out how to silence it. We weren’t quite sure how to reset it though, because it wasn’t quite clear and there was no instructions near it. The stand in caretaker was really nice, and making a joke of it which was nice – probably more lighthearted than the normal man. I suggested he phoned the number starred in the panel, and this seemed to be helpful as a man said he’d come out and sort it out!

Big DOH! It was a bit bad with the alarm going off, because the children took this as a great chance to try to be just as loud as the alarm! I am so glad that I managed to silence it before any parents arrived to collect their child!! That was a my main concern really!! It was all quite surreal!