The elected fire alarm.

Its been a couple of days since the event that I'm going to talk about occurred, there is a small amount of history that I will share before going into my rant. I have tried to let it go and failed in doing so. I'm appalled, disgusted and shocked all at the same time.

Some history...
About 6 months ago we had a fire in our building. The fire was on the 4th floor and started in the kitchen (grease fire). The kids had been home from school for about an hour when the alarm began. I wasn't familiar with the sound of our fire alarm or where it was coming from. When I looked out the door and saw construction workers pointing up at our building with expressions of panic, I used my acute logic and reasoning skills (this is called sarcasm) and said to myself... "that bell is for an emergency, EVACUATE!".
After evacuating the building, a few of men began to go door to door notifying people of the fire. One resident hesitated to come out of her home, she didn't believe that there was a fire and had to be coaxed out (the fire was in the apartment above her). The third attempt at her door finally convinced her to leave. If I can remember her reason, it went something like this; her daughter was coming down with a cold and taking a nap, she didn't want to wake her because she was exhausted from the long day at school. Beside being totally shocked at at this response, how do I react without being totally offensive? Do I tell the woman that being on FIRE would feel worse than a head cold (more sarcasm)? No, I give my strained smile, nod and walk away.
I look at this as an educational opportunity and tell the girls, "if you hear a fire alarm and give me an excuse like that, you will have me to contend with me on a later date and I promise you, I will not be that nice!".
To make matters worse, some of the fire extinguishers were non-operational, residents trying to help with the fire had to go down a floor and find other extinguishers, the fire department had trouble with the water hose, there wasn't any water just brown sludge and finally, the firefighters took the elevator. I mention this hoping that someone can enlighten me to the reason for using the elevator.
In the end, the family relocated to another building and lost everything that was in the kitchen and dining room.

this leads into this weeks events...

Tuesday morning Isabelle ran into our room telling us that the fire alarm was sounding (4:30am). Isabelle had run to Sophia and Haley's room , woke them up, got dressed , put the dogs on leashes and evacuated the building. I was very impressed that the kids calmly evacuated the building in less than five minutes. At no time was there a discussion on whether we should evacuate or not.

While we were outside waiting for the fire truck, "approximately" 4 other families had also evacuated the building, there is a reason I say "approximately". One resident came out holding his son (about 3 years old), telling us that his wife didn't think it was a "real" fire and chose to stay in bed (she is the active duty member). Did she really roll over and go back to sleep as her husband left the building with their son? Another resident later told me that she looked out the window and didn't see a fire, therefore didn't see a reason to wake the kids.
There are 12 families in our building and only 4 evacuated? Am I the only one who sees a problem with this?

Some questions I have been asking myself; When did fire alarms become optional? When the schools have fire drills, is it an "option" to evacuate the building?

When I hear a loud bell it means, MOVE YOUR ***, eminent danger is present. During theses events I never once thought to myself, "Hey, its 4 am in the morning, the fire alarm is going off but I'm pretty sure its just a misunderstanding or a prank. Ill wait until I see flames, smoke or burning bodies before I go out in rain, no need to overreact".

How does someone see a firetruck, police cars and flashing lights outside their building and NOT take that seriously? Do they think that fires don't apply to them, just other people? Do they think they can outsmart a fire? Have we become so numb that we don't react anymore?

....apparently so.

two hours later...

A faulty wire was triggering the alarm.

Jokes on me! Their kids got the extra hour of sleep while mine were out in the rain. They were right the entire time. They were smarter than the system. I should have known, how will they ever be repaid the 10 min lost due to an oversight? Hasn't anyone noticed, we don't have time for these silly games. Lets make sure this doesn't happen again and schedule the next drill at a more convenient time. Public appearance are very important, everyone will be looking at ME, I need time to prepare.