Dang fire alarms

[Sandi Beech]

Well I had read in the forums of this happening to others, but I it never happened to me until today. I am out of town for work and was trying out some clothes in my room when the darned fire alarm goes off. I look in the mirror and say to myself, you got to be kidding me.

I am on the first floor fortunately and could get out my window if I had to, so I looked out my door and saw no smoke on either end of the hallway. I figured it was a false alarm since I saw a Honeywell truck outside.

Now I don?t mind going out fully dressed but I had no makeup or wig on. Clothing wise I had on a Venus pink black and gray striped bodycon minidress , large forms , hip and butt pads and to top it off, my new black leather corset on the outside and gray peep toe bootie shoes. There was no way I was going out and stand in the parking lot in the daytime wearing that. Of course I may go out one evening, haha ; )

Sandi

PS ears are ringing now. Glad I was not on an upper floor.

[Laura912]

One could suggest that maybe you were soooo hot!

[NancySue]

Sandi, Wow! What an experience. Glad things worked out. Thanks to your detailed description of what you were wearing, I have a great mental image of how you looked. Hopefully, if you do go out, you?ll share a picture with us ? I?m sure we?d all love to see your ensemble. I?ll have to research a ?bodicon minidress?. With your legs, it?s got to be fantastic.

[Sandi Beech]

Haha thanks, I will say it?s a pretty hot look. I am kind of surprised to see that some women like to wear corsets on the outside of their clothing. At least it looks like they do from the pictures on orchardcorset.com. I figure if they can do it why not. The effect is so striking I bought two of them. A black one and a beige mesh one. Love them.

Sandi

[Jolene Robertson]

Wow Sandi you really know how to heat things up when you're away. Glad it was a test not the real thing and everyone's OK. Great story and yes we never think about it happening to us.

[Crissy 107]

Sandi, I know you are not one to blend but this time you may have had to try, LOL

[Sandi Beech]

Crissy, you will have to see the one I am putting together for going back to The Castle. It is really a wild one. Just trying to put it all together. I can?t help myself, it?s just too much fun.

Sandi

[alwayshave]

Did you start to get undressed in case you did need to get out of your apartment.

[Sandi Beech]

Nah Jamie, I figured if I really had to get out of the building, everyone could have a big laugh ; )

Sandi

[Erin Lafleur]

Jeez, I had the same issue last night too!
I live on the tenth floor of a high rise building and the fire alarm went off last night at 3:00AM. I've now lived here for about a year and a half and this is the fifth time it's happened.
The elevators are immediately defeated and that means walking down ten stories, waiting outside for an hour or two, then walking back up... ten stories. Not great...
The vast majority of the owners never budge from their suites, which I later found out after the first false alarm. Probably 75% of the residents go nowhere, it's unfortunately a fairly regular occurrence.
Although I wasn't dressed last night and I was in bed, it wasn't the end of the world. Until Mother knocked on my door, scared out of her wits. I have my 87 year old mother staying with me for a few months so, things are a bit different from that perspective. I fully intended to open the door, comfort Mom that there was nothing to worry about and pour her a cup of tea and ride out another false alarm. I opened my bedroom door and immediately smelled the smoke, that immediately rivets your attention.
I had never smelled smoke before and, I can assure you, that gets your immediate attention. This is different.
How do you get a fragile 87 year old woman down 10 flights of stairs, dressed for 35 below zero (apparently they had a heated fire station bus in attendance, which I had no idea was even a thing), for a couple of hours and then ascend those same ten flights of stairs? Not a great option, to say the least.
As it turned out, there was a fire on the sixth floor but they were able to contain it, thank God.
Not a great night for sure so, I certainly hear you Sandi...

[Pumped]

I was in a motel, dressed when the alarm went off. Fastest change back to male mode ever! I was almost ready to head out the door and the alarm stopped. I stuck my head out the door and one of the maids came walking by saying false alarm. I understand the staff may clear rooms so I was not going to take a chance.

[LydiaL]

Never brush aside fire alarms. Yes, often they are false alarms.

Have experienced more than one hotel/motel/inn fire alarm. If the alarm turns back off in a few seconds before your change of clothing is complete, or you have even had time to make a decision, what the heck. All is then well.

We only need to reflect on fires that have been real and deadly in hotels that we could have been staying in to realize that it can indeed happen. Get your guard up, just in case.

My latest false alarm incident was no threat after all. Heading to my room after checking in to an inn somewhere in the US mid-west this past year. Fire alarms suddenly a-ripping. Ceiling sprinkler system lets loose close by. All in one spot directly over an innocent lady that was feeding coins into a vending machine to get a bag of snacks! Staff a scrambling to resolve the issue, so not much I could do as I don't pack a mop in my carry-ons! (A month's worth of my water usage dumped onto the hallway in seconds, oh my.)

I can get some ice when the hall floor dries out some time later. As long as my wind-down drink (as packed) is wet.

[Sandi Beech]

FYI , I did not mean to imply I brushed it off. Keep in mind I was on the ground floor with 3 ways to exit, and I checked the hallway every minute or so for smoke until they cleared the alarm. If I had been above the first floor I would have left immediately.

Still, I was thinking as soon as it went off - doh, this happens to people on the forum, not me, haha.

Sandi

[BTWimRobin]

Hi Sandi,

Glad you're safe and it was a false alarm. I would suspect you would not have been the only CD standing in the parking lot.

[Heather76]

In my job I spent on average 130 nights/year in hotel/motel rooms for 15 years. NEVER did I hear a fire alarm sound. If I were dressed, I've no idea how I would react. I hope I never have to find out.

[docrobbysherry]

Ever practiced "take off" drills, Sandi? I did that often when my daughter came home unexpectedly before she knew about Sherry.

I found I could take off everything except tites and girdle and bra, then pull a shirt and pants over those, slip on shoes and be out of my bedroom door in 2 minutes flat!

It helps a lot that my face goes on or off in 3 seconds!

[ellbee]

Just goes to show you, that pretty much anything can happen at any time -- at home or away from home.

Certainly everyone here should be mindful of that, at some level or another.


I think one of the more "memorable" ones for me, was years ago I was just driving around in the evening/early night, totally en femme. Just kinda getting lost & exploring local areas I'd never really been through before. This was way before I had a femme social life or anything, so, that's what I sometimes did!

Anyway, 2-lane state highway, double yellow lines, somewhat rural. In my rear-view mirror I see a car come barreling down behind me, illegally passing another car... And they were going *fast*! I put on my right blinker, pulling over to the edge as much as possible, and let them pass me in a quick & easy breeze, knowing that it was probably "safer" on the current stretch of the road.

Sometime later, on the same highway? I go around a curve, only to find a downed telephone pole & wires hanging all above the road. And then I saw car lights, off in the field/woods/swamp, pretty far in. I have no doubt that it was the same car that was crazily passing us earlier.

I saw that I could safely pass through the mayhem. But, like, shouldn't I go check on that car?? Suppose they need my help? Yikes, suppose they're dead?! Wait- OMG, I'm totally all dolled-up right now!!

Of course it was a no-brainer, and I resigned myself to trudging through the swamp in a dress, hose & heels, LOL.

Then I heard approaching sirens, off in the distance. That's when I eventually noticed a 3rd car, facing opposite me, just stopped... I believe they had gotten there earlier & phoned in the emergency. *phew!* Thank GAAAWWWDDDD!!!

So, knowing that help was already nearby & on the way, I continued on my way down the road.


Yup, anything can happen. Be mindful of that. If traveling by car or other means? Some feel the need to bring along a "guy bag" for such emergencies. I personally never do, but I still don't blame 'em! I should at least consider it.


For a while afterwards, I remember checking online the town's local news for any stories of bad car accidents. Nope, none. My conscience could rest that much easier, heh. But, still. This incident could have (and maybe even *should* have!) been a bit different... Even just a minute or two can have a big impact. I suppose I rolled the dice & got lucky, that it ended up being an okay decision on my part?

But, yeah... It's not always puppies, rainbows & glitter out there!

[abby054]

I have experienced two such incidents in hotels. The first was in Austin, Texas, at 5am one chilly morning in 2005. I was asleep in my room on the second floor. A small fire on the third floor set the fire alarm and the sprinkler system go off. That alarm was loud enough to raise the dead. The sprinklers put out enough water to have us surfing down the hallway, riding a waterfall down the stairs, and out the door. We all stood around, soaked and cold for about an hour until the fire dept let us back in. No one was hurt, though we all had hearing problems for a few days.

The second incident was a year later in Dallas on business. A Sunday morning thunderstorm dumped 30 cm of rain in about two hours. The Trinity River, normally a trickle that my cat can straddle, became a vast torrent wider than the Mississippi at Memphis. The water topped out at a meter deep on the first floor of the hotel. I was on the second floor. I just finished my makeup and was putting on my skirt when a knock came at the door. I ignored it. The knock came back several times in the next hour, becoming a determined pounding. The management was clearing the hotel. I cleaned off my makeup, changed into drab, and met the manager. He offered free dinner and snacks while we waited out the flood but there was little else he could do. The parking lot was neck deep in flood water. The snakes that live down by the river were climbing the exterior stairs of the hotel to escape the deluge. So we stayed on his second floor balcony walkway party until the water receded. I should have answered the door en femme but I was still mostly in the closet back then. It got even worse after that. After the waters dried up, I bailed the dirty water out of my rental car. From that dirty water, I caught a rash, a staph infection, that landed my under observation at a local clinic for a day or so. When the doctor took one look at the rash, he asked, you been down by the Trinity River, haven?t you? I decided not to push my luck to dress again. One of my employees, a transitioning mtf person at the time, who was with me to work on our contract job and stayed at the same hotel, did work the entire time in female mode, including the flood party.