Inquiring about a Smoke Detector(?)
Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 11:01 pm
Possibly a smoke detector, at least I am assuming it is.
In order to explain this fully, I'd have to diverge a little about myself personally. As a child, I was horrifically phobic of fire alarms, and this extends as far back as I can remember, even from before I was old enough to start school.
I am very hyper sensitive to noises, so sudden inescapable loud ones caused me distress. Indoor alarm systems frighten me a lot, outdoor ones are a different story though (I used to be afraid of tornado sirens but muscled my way out of fear through education, and now I love them!)
Anyways, due to this as a kid I spent a great deal of my time inspecting the ceilings and walls of all the places and buildings I would go to, looking for fire alarms and smoke detectors, noting their type and appearance and location, etc etc. It was like a self destructive kind of obsession, fire drills were the bane of my existence and I guess I wanted to.. be aware of what I was afraid of. Not sure.
So I know a lot about fire alarms, the different systems, makes and models, brands, etc. But there is one experience that to this day feels extremely mysterious. I've done as much googling as I possibly could and haven't been able to find anything that I could consider a match to this one.
I was in 1st grade being given a tour of my new school after hours, and I scoured the area looking at the different alarms. The whole building was decked out with a simplex system including detectors, sprinklers, fire alarm strobes and speakers.
However in one of the 5th grade classrooms, there was something mounted on the ceiling, I am assuming it was a smoke detector, but the thing that made this one different was how abnormally large it was.
That's just what stood out to me, the lighting was dim as all the lights were off and the sun was setting, probably making the experience that much more terrifying to me.
It was like, as I perceived it, huge. Very very large and long with a cylindrical pillar shape, I think it was beige or cream colored, and there was a small red light on the base of it. I believe it had visible censors in the form of a dark ring around the very end.
But what stood out to me was that it was HUGE, the mother of all alarms. I was so afraid of it I was frozen in place and I adamantly refused to enter the room. It felt like a legend to me, and a few times I'd actually left class without permission to go upstairs to the 5th grade rooms specifically to try and find this ultimate smoke alarm.
Eventually when I actually made it to 5th grade, I found that none of the rooms had anything even remotely similar mounted in them, and I never saw anything like it ever again.
Results for, 'large smoke detector' and 'biggest smoke alarm/fire alarm' didn't give me much, and I don't have an exact brand name or a definite description. For all I know, it might not even have been very big at all and my tiny child brain misinterpreted the size due to my own fear. Who knows?
I figured it might be worth asking however if anyone on this website has ever heard of anything possibly matching that description? This happened a definite 15 years ago and my memory very well could be off, so if anyone knows of anything that has that sort of design, shape and size even roughly, I would appreciate if you'd let me know! I want to finally identify this legendary sighting once and for all.
In order to explain this fully, I'd have to diverge a little about myself personally. As a child, I was horrifically phobic of fire alarms, and this extends as far back as I can remember, even from before I was old enough to start school.
I am very hyper sensitive to noises, so sudden inescapable loud ones caused me distress. Indoor alarm systems frighten me a lot, outdoor ones are a different story though (I used to be afraid of tornado sirens but muscled my way out of fear through education, and now I love them!)
Anyways, due to this as a kid I spent a great deal of my time inspecting the ceilings and walls of all the places and buildings I would go to, looking for fire alarms and smoke detectors, noting their type and appearance and location, etc etc. It was like a self destructive kind of obsession, fire drills were the bane of my existence and I guess I wanted to.. be aware of what I was afraid of. Not sure.
So I know a lot about fire alarms, the different systems, makes and models, brands, etc. But there is one experience that to this day feels extremely mysterious. I've done as much googling as I possibly could and haven't been able to find anything that I could consider a match to this one.
I was in 1st grade being given a tour of my new school after hours, and I scoured the area looking at the different alarms. The whole building was decked out with a simplex system including detectors, sprinklers, fire alarm strobes and speakers.
However in one of the 5th grade classrooms, there was something mounted on the ceiling, I am assuming it was a smoke detector, but the thing that made this one different was how abnormally large it was.
That's just what stood out to me, the lighting was dim as all the lights were off and the sun was setting, probably making the experience that much more terrifying to me.
It was like, as I perceived it, huge. Very very large and long with a cylindrical pillar shape, I think it was beige or cream colored, and there was a small red light on the base of it. I believe it had visible censors in the form of a dark ring around the very end.
But what stood out to me was that it was HUGE, the mother of all alarms. I was so afraid of it I was frozen in place and I adamantly refused to enter the room. It felt like a legend to me, and a few times I'd actually left class without permission to go upstairs to the 5th grade rooms specifically to try and find this ultimate smoke alarm.
Eventually when I actually made it to 5th grade, I found that none of the rooms had anything even remotely similar mounted in them, and I never saw anything like it ever again.
Results for, 'large smoke detector' and 'biggest smoke alarm/fire alarm' didn't give me much, and I don't have an exact brand name or a definite description. For all I know, it might not even have been very big at all and my tiny child brain misinterpreted the size due to my own fear. Who knows?
I figured it might be worth asking however if anyone on this website has ever heard of anything possibly matching that description? This happened a definite 15 years ago and my memory very well could be off, so if anyone knows of anything that has that sort of design, shape and size even roughly, I would appreciate if you'd let me know! I want to finally identify this legendary sighting once and for all.