The shriek of the fire alarm and the sight of a fire truck pulling outside have become so common at the new off-campus apartment complex Gateway 737 that residents say they’ve stopped paying attention.
Management says they will fix the problem, but the alarm continues to go off, frustrating residents like Nicole Quarshie.
“Honestly it’s so annoying like I was telling my friends I can recite it by heart because it goes off for so long and so frequently,” Nicole Quarshie said.
The city tracks how often the fire department responds to a fire alarm activation with a crew and a truck. According to a public records request, firefighters have been called to the complex 43 times since August.
“When the fire alarm is going off for 20–30 plus minutes on end it makes me have a migraine which is really inconvenient,” Quarshie said.
Not all alarms happen during the day. Records show six alarms went off during sleeping hours, defined as 11 p.m. through 8 a.m. There were also multiple instances where the alarm sounded more than twice in a 48-hour period.
Holder Properties, which manages the building, declined an on-camera interview but provided a statement saying, in part: “It is important to note that the recent alarms have not been ‘false alarms.’ Each activation was triggered by real conditions such as smoke or water, and the system responded as programmed.”
Tommy Middleton, vice president of operations at Columbia Fire and Safety Inc, says in his profession the alarm system is usually set up differently to avoid any false positive alarms.
“To think there wouldn’t be or to expect there wouldn’t be false alarms is relatively foolish. There are going to be false alarms, you just want to contain those false positives, in that type of occupancy,” said Middleton.
For example, if someone burns popcorn in one room, a programmed alarm system would activate only in that room, not trigger an evacuation of the entire building.
Middleton also said the wrong alarm setup can be hazardous for residents.
“False alarms can desensitize people,” Middleton said.
He added these false positive alarms can be costly for taxpayers. AlarmUser.org reports that on average a false alarm where the fire department has to come can cost a department between $100 and $500 per trip.
The Columbia Fire Department also declined an interview but issued a statement: “The fire marshal’s office is working with management of the property to prevent this issue from continuing going forward.”
The city has a law that punishes building owners for repeated false alarms, but Carolina News confirmed that 737 has not been fined for the situation at Gateway.
Quarshie says she hopes building management resolves the issue soon.
“And I just feel like they don’t take as much accountability as they should in these situations,” she said.
Holder Properties also said in its statement that they made changes to the system over Thanksgiving break in hopes to resolve the issue. The new system is similar to Middleton’s preferred set-up method.
