I doubt I could carry on without at least checking to see if anyone was in the house, if it was a fire alarm. If it was a burglar alarm or car alarm with no obvious signs of break-in, I'd most likely walk on. I wouldn't want to confront a burglar! If there were signs of a break-in, I'd call the police.
I'm assuming that DF meant a smoke alarm and they are quite shrill, in comparison to burglar alarms.
to enlighten you a bit , i've had to deal with this tonight, but it has made me think about how we respond to things.....I know I did what was right under the circumstances and I had the resources (i was working) to hand to respond the best way I could....
but, lets assume you are Joe Bloggs walking down the street minding your own, and someone's smoke alarm is beeping, and it's not switching off, and they're not in.... what do you do?
i might not hear the alarm over my i-pod............
but if i did... i would definately investigate.. be it a fire alarm or a burglar alarm.....
id take different courses of action dependant on which.......
if theres an alarm sounding. its going off for a reason.. even it its only a false alarm
ohhh.......this one is a difficult one dark as you say that it's an area you don't know.......to be honest if I was to hear an alarm going in a house that was in an area I didn't know I would be wary but I would stop to see what was wrong.......if I was comfortable in the area I would have a look around the property to see what was up........if I wasn't comfortable with that I would try to speak to the neighbours to see if they could provide any info.........after that I would decide the best couse of action........whatever that would be.......
I'm just commeting on what you have given us to go on........many people will have differing opinions due to jobs etc.......
i think i would at least stop to make sure everything was ok
If i was walking past and heard a fire/smoke alarm and it looked like no 1 was in i wud wait outside for a min or 2 without looking like im up 2 something, go and have a look, if i cud c smoke ring the fire brigade, if not go to a neighbours and tell them its going off and have they got a contact num for the owner so they could contact them and let them no
I think this is one of those situations where its easy to feel or imagine that there is a problem greater than it is, and in doing so, likely to set in action a series of events which may be unwarranted. It also involves conveniently passing on the responsibility to someone else.
Its all too easy to 'phone up' the men in uniforms. They are then obliged to carry out their standard procedures. The services usually respond by breaking into someone's house. Is this what you would do? Probably not. Is this also what you would be happy with if your home was subjected to a false alarm? It actually isn't an enjoyable thing to experience.
:cry:
I can appreciate that if someone was genuinely convinced and had good reason to believe it was a life threatening situation it would be understandable. There will also be people who have experienced a genuine disaster and their responses would be justifiably prejudiced. But I think the incidents of false alarms greatly outnumber the genuiine. So I wouldn't do it unless I saw genuine signs.
There has also been a recent presentation of the idea that to get the services to respond you have to 'lay it on'. Hmmmmmmm.........
In the example of an alarm being heard. I wouldn't know or assume it was a fire alarm. It is a daily experience to hear an alarm activated. So it would have to be especially compelling for me to become involved in the scenario. If I did become involved, I would be more likely to approach the neighbours to see how often it occurred and get a slightly better assessment of the situation that way.
If it was a fire alarm I would call the fire brigade. Anything else I would not get involved i'm afraid. This question raises the whole would you do something dillema, IE, step in if someone is getting beaten up etc etc, I have done in the past and have always ended up regretting it.
I would definately give a knock to see if someone is there and if there wasnt i would call the fire brigade just in case there was someone in there who couldnt come to the door. I couldnt forgive myself if someone was seriously hurt because i didnt check. Even if it was a false alarm.
Louise xx
It's non swinging related though so if that offends, look away now :lol: 
:rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao:
They seem to go off so regularly these days 
) - lovely neighbour knew it didn't go off at that time of day and called the police - they had to climb over our gate to look round the back and in the windows etc ............. they put it down to a spider or something walking over the sensor :? ........... dunno whether thats what they normally say, or whether they thought I had a messy house and done a wild guess :uhoh:
