FOR Nurfarah Kamarul Baharin, the sound of a fire alarm means gathering her six-year-old daughter and helping her 64-year-old mother-in-law make the journey down 41 flights of stairs.
She still remembers it was around 8pm or 9pm when the alarm rang in their high-rise building. Seeing other residents evacuating, the family joined them, stopping every few flights so Nurfarah’s mother-in-law could rest. By the time they reached the ground floor evacuation point, residents were being told it was only a minor issue. After waiting for about half an hour, they were allowed back upstairs.
“My poor mother-in-law had to walk down 41 flights of stairs for what felt like nothing,” the 35-year-old recalls.
For residents living in high-rise buildings, every fire alarm presents a difficult choice.
Evacuating may ultimately prove unnecessary, but delaying could prove disastrous if the emergency turns out to be real.
For families with young children, elderly relatives, or people with mobility issues, that decision can become even more complicated.
Assoc Prof Dr Farid Wajdi Akashah, a building surveying expert from Universiti Malaya who specialises in fire safety, says evacuation planning should take into account the needs of household members who may require additional time or assistance.
“If there’s an elderly or disabled person in your household, that should shape your evacuation plan specifically,” he says, adding that these conversations should take place before an emergency occurs, rather than during one.
Yet not every alarm leads high-rise residents to head for the stairs. For Anna Tee, when she heard her apartment’s fire alarm ring at 4am (see story, “The alarms that cried wolf”), she tried every way she could think of to determine whether it was a real emergency and whether anyone else was evacuating. When she eventually encountered a security guard in the stairwell, she was told it was likely a false alarm.
“But then he said he was going to check the issue, which made me even more confused,” she says.
With no obvious signs of danger and no one else appearing to leave their units, Tee decided to return to bed.
Her uncertainty is a common challenge faced by high-rise residents during false alarms. Without clear information, many residents are left trying to determine for themselves whether the alarm signals a genuine emergency or is another false activation.
Kabilan Krishnan, 44, says good communication from building management gave him greater confidence in the system.
After hearing a fire alarm one night and deciding not to evacuate because nothing appeared out of the ordinary, the marketing executive says he received an e-mail from his apartment management the next day explaining that a false fire alarm had occurred and that inspections had been carried out, although the exact cause could not be identified.
About a week later, he says he received another e-mail informing residents that further internal testing of the building’s firefighting system would be conducted.
“I think it’s good that they inform the residents about every step,” he says.
Strata lawyer Lai Chee Hoe says keeping residents informed before scheduled alarm tests and after false alarm activations is an important part of managing fire safety.
Farid concurs, saying communication is an important part of maintaining residents’ confidence in a building’s fire safety system. Beyond that, he encourages residents to familiarise themselves with their building’s emergency escape routes before an emergency occurs.
Although many people have lived in their apartments for years, he notes that they often instinctively head towards the lift lobby or the route they use every day instead of the nearest emergency staircase.
“Most residents use the lift daily and may never once have walked the emergency staircase.
“So it’s worth actually walking that route with your family every so often and not just assume you’d find it if you ever needed it,” he says.
