Written by Kathryn Staley
Almost all Harding students have dealt with the familiar ear-splitting noise of the fire alarm on multiple occasions. For most students, the fire alarm is a minor inconvenience; a few bags of burned popcorn, a couple of fire drills and they never hear it again.
But for the women in Shores Hall, the fire alarm has become expected every few weeks; including early Saturday morning, the fire alarm has sounded 10 times. The familiar screeching has dragged girls from the shower, bed and getting ready for church many times.
“If there actually was a fire, most of us would be dead,” Katie Wade said. “No one hears the fire alarm and thinks about a fire; they think about how cold it is outside, where their phones are, and finding a pair of shoes. Someone running up and down the halls yelling ‘Fire!’ would be more effective than the alarm.”
While the girls have become accustomed to frequent alarms, Saturday was a different story. When the familiar noise started at around 5 a.m., the girls went and stood out in the cold, many wrapped in blankets and wearing slippers, but 30 minutes later they still hadn’t been given the all-clear to go back inside.
They were sent to wait in the Pryor lobby to avoid the cold and a few minutes later were told they could go back to their rooms. However, as everyone was making their way to their rooms, the alarm sounded again.
The confused girls were told to go ahead back into their rooms. Thirty minutes later the alarm was still going sounding every minute in 5- to 10-second bursts. Officials weren’t able to get the alarm to stop completely until around 6:15 a.m.
The women of Shores have been calling for the improvement of the fire alarm system, which will go off on Sunday mornings if too many girls are drying their hair at the same time. After the events of this morning, that cry will probably become even louder.
