The Fire Brigade were ever so nice about it ...

[GB]

We had a false alarm on our burglar/fire alarm in the middle of the night. I got up, checked the house carefully for fire, and entered the cancel code - all within 2 or 3 minutes of the alarm going off.

It's a centrally monitored alarm, and I thought it was strange that the monitoring station hadn't called us to check that everything was okay. Only, they had, but the alarm was so loud that we hadn't heard the phone. So, I think we are going to have to do something about that.

Anyway, the firemen were very nice about it, and seemed quite pleased that they didn't have to do anything.

[ARW]

We usually get charged when we set them off in schools and hospitals.

BTW Have you any idea what caused the false alarm?

[NY]

Early one Saturday morning, there was a loud and insistent knocking at the front door. When I opened the bedroom window to look down at the front door area, there were two police officers standing there. WTF! Instant panic - were they bringing bad news? It turned out that they had received a silent

999 call from my (landline) phone and were checking that I was OK. Goodness knows what had caused it. I hope they found the person (presumably at another house in the area that had been wrongly identified as mine) and were able to help him.

[GB]

Yes, the leaking pipe in the dining room ceiling, probably. It's strange that there are no alarm cables near the leak, but it's a bit of a coincidence, otherwise.

I've just paid Pimlico Plumbers over £200 to cap the old lead pipe off. I had the right lead compression fitting, but it was very awkwardly placed, next to an old lead join, and any errors would have meant ripping out miles of pipework. Plus probably moving out whilst the job was done. So, I chickened out and let someone with experience do it.

Interestingly, he cut the pipe in a different place from where I would have, and he fed the fitting in through the cut-out in the joist, which hadn't occurred to me was possible. So, he succeeded, where I might well have failed. Good job.

[SteveW]

My parents live on a crescent, except that it isn't. One end of it is actually the middle of adnother road. The layout is that road P is cut in two by another road and then the remainder is cut in two by the railway, with only a footbridge connecting the third part. Road D curves from the road that cuts P in two, until it joins the end of P that is near the railway.

Back in the days where a very nice couple and their adopted children lived in the same number house, but on P, as my parents did on D, they regularly got the police at the door, in the night, as the adopted son was off the rails and glue sniffing.

They've also had the fire-brigade and multiple deliveries. At one point they managed to stop a skip company leaving a skip on the next-door neighbours' drive.

[ARW]

Glad you were happy.

I don't know what system you have but it's usually possible to tell which sensor was activated. This is something we get time after time at work when a sensor is on it's way out.

What happens is the fire alarm is silenced and then reset by the customer. Doing this on most fire alarm panels means you then cannot tell which sensor went off. The trick is to silence the alarm and then check every sensor to look for one with a solid red light on it.

One of the reason I fit the AICO remote switch on some house is that it has a locate button so that you can go straight to the detector that has activated.

Cheers

Adam

[Brian Gaff]

One thing that they often mention is that if they cannot get anywhere near a house due to parked cars is that they then have a legitimate reason for complaining to the local council to do something about this, since had it been real, it could have delayed their attendance. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

I've heard of rodents finding the cables very tasty doing that. I think they often start to charge if it happens a lot. Common sense would suggest that faults occur from time to time. Brian

[Colin Bignell]

According to a volunteer fireman I know, the engines have a reinforced front bumper, specifically so they can push vehicles out of their way if they have to.

[Andrew]

Sussex Fire Brigade have had to buy some special narrow vehicles for getting down some of the side roads in Brighton where a normal engine could not venture (with cars parked everywhere).

Andrew

[The Natural Philosopher]

Oooh. I want one of those! And a fork lift, for just stop oil extinction protesters

[NY]

I think a road roller is better for that ;-)

The law urgently needs to be tightened up so anyone who blocks "the highway" as part of a protest can be forcibly removed and be punished severely. The police have even criticised motorists who drag protesters to the side of the road: well if the police won't do it, the public will.

Why is UK so lax in dealing with people who physically prevent the public going about their daily lives or who cause damage to property?

I heard of a group of protestors who got into a car factory in Germany and superglued themselves to the floor/equipment. So the management sent all the workers home, turned the lights and heating off, and left the protesters to enjoy their time in the cold and dark.

[Bob Eager]

I thought it was a showroom. But it worked just as well!

I saw a video of angry people in France being blocked by protesters who has superglued themselves to the road. They just ripped them off the road.

[Rod Speed]

And left them to shit and piss in their pants.

[SteveW]

If it's the same one that I saw, it wasn't even the public that ripped them off, it was the police.

[JNugent]

The renowned CRS (who also have responsibility for national highway policing duties), IIRC.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Because those protesters are being funded by the same people who have removed and replaced our prime minister without any democratic process whatsoever.

And guess what. All U turns, and renewable energy is all that we will install.

And then ripped them off the floor taking the skin off their hands

[charles]

they complained that nobody laid on chamber pots.

[ARW]

Sometimes the protestors do good work.