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Comment by danepowell | Hacker News Reader

I wasn't in Hawaii, but I also imagine that I would assume that an alert like this is a false alarm. I've just lived through too many scenarios like this, albeit not on the same scale (think false fire alarms.)

Upon reflection, however, this seems like the definition of survivor bias.

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I remember an occasion when I lived with a partner - the fire alarm had gone off and I immediately got out of bed and started putting my pants and shoes on. She asked why, I said "so we can go outside. What are you doing? Let's go."

She said she didn't understand the point - if it was a REAL fire, wouldn't they just come get us or tell us?

I don't know how prominent this thought process is, or why so many people don't take things like fire alarms seriously. Selection bias, perhaps you're right. Every fire alarm most people has ever heard was a drill.

This has happened twice at work now, even my manager was teasing me for telling people they should leave. Eventually I left on my own.

I think it makes sense to be prepared to evacuate by doing things like getting dressed or packing your bags. But you don't have to leave every time the alarm goes off. If you don't smell smoke, hear a rushing/roaring sound or feel heat coming from somewhere it probably is a false alarm.

By the time you feel heat or hear roaring or see smoke your hallway is already on fire. In some buildings that's your only escape route.

Please don't give dangerous advice.

They might not have known - a good question to ask might be "why did that user think it was ok to recommend a non-urgent action in response to a fire alarm? Why did that user think it's ok to wait for evidence of a fire outside of an alarm?" Somewhere, society is failing to instill a proper respect for emergency indicators.

I wouldn’t expect someone to come get me if there was a fire, but I suspect I would have a fairly low sense of urgency. Fire alarms in my experience have had an incredibly high false positive rate, either due to unannounced drills, pranks, or “correct” operation (e.g. smoke from the stove).

Which is exactly the point of fire drills, to teach people to leave the building calmly.

I was in a club once (in a basement) and the fire alarm went. Music stopped, everybody looked around confused for 30 seconds, no one saw an immediate fire, and then the music started up again twice as loud to drown out the alarm.

A couple things to keep in mind:

1. Your most logical thinking doesn't occur at 8am on a weekend when you just woke up.

2. Hawaii has a more ingrained trust of the EAS than most other states. We test our sirens and EAS monthly. Sirens for tsunamis aren't that uncommon, and there are several horror stories in Hawaii of how people have ignored the sirens and warning signs in the past and got killed.

3. It's a lot easier to determine its a false alarm in hindsight. At the time, you have no information other than the alert and the knowledge about the current tensions with North Korea. We all knew there was a chance it was a false alarm and sure hoped it was, but when your life is on the line it doesn't matter.

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