By-product of an installed alarm system is the false alarms and the false alarm fine. Please do not blame technology, instead, please be well self-educated. Even if you don’t get an alarm system installed, sometimes you still need to get to know it, especially when you are living in a condominium.

When you are cooking, everything seems fine, just a little bit smoke, but the fire alarm suddenly starts to beep. What should you do?

- Cancel the alarm!

The first thing you should do is to call security to cancel the alarm and you will be surprised to know how efficient the security guard is in terms of informing fire department. I wonder why the first step for him to do is not to call the alarm activated unit instead of the fire department directly?

The following steps will ensure you the alarm will stop beeping in minutes:

• Before cooking, please open your windows to let the air in your unit circulate well and get you some fresh air, but make sure your door is closed to doorway. Never open the door when the false alarms occur!
• When the alarm starts to beep, don’t panic; turn off the stove, remove and cover the cooking pan
• Circulate the air around the fire alarm device with a fan or the like and the alarm beep will stop in seconds

If you have more than one person in the unit, please instruct the other person to share the tasks with you. If you are the person who is cooking, please ask the other one to call to cancel the alarm and you do the rest; if the other person is cooking, then you can call to cancel the alarm immediately.

This post sounds trivial, however, when the false alarm happens, it will reminds you of this post.

Don’t let the false alarm fine outnumber the protection you get.