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Faulty Fire Detector Troubles! Can I take it out!!! Driving me NUTS!!!?
Hi!
I live in a small one bedroom apartment. About two months ago the fire alarm in my bedroom just started randomly going off. I was just sitting in the living room reading, there was no smoke anywhere. I called the Maintenance guys and they came to look at it. They said it was a "low battery problem" and replaced it. Well this morning the same fire detector in my bedroom did the same thing!!! I was sitting in the living room watching TV early this afternoon when it just started going off for no reason! I again called maintenance and they came over and said "battery problem" I told them how it had happened before and how I thought it was a wiring problem. They tried a new detector and it did the exact same thing. So they took it completely out of the ceiling and told me they would be back tomorrow to check the wiring. So I have no detector in my bedroom right now. About 10 tonight the OTHER detector in the hallway started making a weird buzzing noise and then beeping once, I took the battery out and it's still doing it!!! It's connected to the ceiling still but I mean with no battery??? I mean, it sounds like the buzzing you hear next to a power line, like it's charging up for a big beep. That def. sounds like wiring to me! But there's no way I can sleep with that thing! Maintenance is gone and cannot be reached. Is there someone else I should call about this or can I unplug it from the ceiling??? It used to be every 5 minutes and now it's getting shorter and shorter between periods it goes off. I'm sure the neighbors are loving us.
4 Answers
- 1 decade agoFavourite answer
To get a night sleep I would call the Fire Department, and have them check it out. They won't mind.
- Nuff SedLv 71 decade ago
Do not call the fire department unless you think there is a fire or a fire safety problem. For example, you are not allowed to sleep in an apartment that does not have a functional smoke alarm.
Keep track of the days you have had problems and what was done, and then ask the landlord to fix the problem once and for all and give you a pro-rata rebate for each night of sleep you lost. If they do not fix the alarm, you can tell the landlord you will have it fixed and send them the bill or take it off your rent.
Call the fire marshal in the morning and have the building landlord brought up on safety charges (could be $1,000 per day) until they pass the necessary testing on the fire alarms.
You should also start looking for a new place, as you will be evicted approximately 6 months and a day after you make this sort of complaint. However, you'll be better off with a landlord who understands how important proper maintenance is on smoke alarms.
Source(s): firefighter, attorney - 1 decade ago
I lived in an apartment for years and I used to take the battery out of the fire detector all the time, or just plain take it down. It drove me nuts and would go off for dumb reasons, like when I was boiling water. The apartment maintenance would come by like once or twice a year to check on it. They'd put it back, and then i'd take it down again.
Just don't start any fires.
- 5 years ago
I would take it off the ceiling, and see how it is wired. My smoke detectors have connectors, and can be disconnected without exposing the wire ends. If yours is like that, then you can just unplug it.
