Frequent fire alarms at the Radian Apartments have left some residents jaded and concerned by the alarm system.
Most recently, the alarm went off around 7:30 p.m. last Wednesday, but only about 50 residents evacuated the building. The Radian houses approximately 500.
“The biggest problem is that people start to just ignore” fire alarms, College senior and Radian resident Meredith Perry said. “If there’s ever an emergency, people are in trouble because they might not leave at this point.” According to Perry, last Wednesday was the second time in two days the building’s fire alarm went off, and at least the fifth time this semester.
College sophomore Jake Spinowitz, also a building resident, said the alarm has gone off five times in the last month.
“It’s becoming more of a ‘boy who cried wolf’ situation,” Spinowitz said, noting that the first time it went off this year, “everybody left the building — but [fewer] do as it keeps happening.”
“You could tell that people were still on the treadmills in the gym, which I found hysterical,” he said, referring to Wednesday’s alarm.
“I go out every time,” Spinowitz added. “But in the back of your mind you know it’s a faulty alarm.”
According to an e-mail sent on behalf of Rachel Kihn — the vice president of marketing at Inland American Communities, which manages the Radian — the Philadelphia Fire Department has worked with the building and “a third party” to evaluate the fire alarm system.
“Each evaluation confirmed that the fire alarm system is working properly and has no faulty components, and also that the alarms have been triggered by individuals,” the e-mail read.
Kihn also said the Radian has installed security cameras and offered a financial reward for anyone who helps identify those who trigger the alarms.
But for College sophomore and building resident Coby Lerner, the idea of someone triggering the alarms is “hard to believe.”
“We’re not in middle school and […] nobody wakes up at 6:30 on a weekday to pull a fire alarm,” he wrote in an e-mail, referring to a morning fire alarm that took place last Tuesday.
Spinowitz agreed. “Maybe one time someone did” pull the fire alarm, he said, “but the reward is probably just to distract people from the alarm system being screwed up.”
“Most of the time, smoking and cooking cause these sorts of fire alarms,” Philadelphia Fire Department Battallion Chief Richard Davison said, emphasizing the difference between a faulty fire alarm that goes off for no apparent reason and one that goes off as a result of residents’ actions.
“The danger comes in when the alarm isn’t working properly,” Davison said.
To reach a conclusion about whether the system is faulty, he said, “I would monitor the next alarm and determine its origin.”
However, Spinowitz does not think that concerns about alarms are worth giving up the Radian as a future living space.
“I asked people before moving in, and the fire alarms apparently went off a lot last year too,” Spinowitz said. “I would say to people who want advice moving in, the fire alarm is terrible, but overall it’s not a reason to not live here.”
Even the management of Jimmy John’s — housed within the Radian — sees the fire alarms as merely annoying. “Our sales numbers haven’t gone down” because of the alarms, Jimmy John’s proprietor Brett Weinheimer said. “As it is right now, we haven’t complained at all to business management.”
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