Strange goings on at work

[hiddenhome]

I work in a care home and over the past couple of weeks some strange things have been happening.

A smoke detector was triggered and couldn't be turned off. In the end it had to be dismantled. It was checked and nothing wrong was found. Fair enough, could have been a random fault.

A few days later another smoke detector went off. The staff who went to investigate came through the doors and saw what appeared to be smoke swirling around just along the corridor, but it abruptly disappeared as they approached and there was no sign of a fire and no smell at all.

One evening I went into one of the bedrooms to close the curtains and put the tv off as the resident in the room was asleep. As I was going to leave, the door suddenly slammed shut on me. It broke my glasses, bruised my arm and my eyelid was cut I felt shocked, but just gave the handover and went home. I've had a black eye all week which is fading now. I've had to buy new glasses as the old ones were badly knocked out of shape and they'd never really be right again.

I told my colleague about it this evening and so we both went to the bedroom where my accident had occurred and tried to slam the door. It has a door closer on which prevents it from being slammed shut. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't get the door to shut with any force at all. It was slow and sluggish without much force at all.

Strange

[Italiangreyhound]

Hiddenhome sorry to hear of your experiences. I would report them to your boss and ask their advice. I would also talk to your local vicar. Many care homes are connected to a church, even informally, and so you could speak to the vicar/priest/minister attached to your care home, or your own one if you have one.

[Italiangreyhound]

As a Christian I believe Jesus is stronger than any evil forces, assuming there is no natural reason for these things, and so a vicar or minister should be able to assist you in this matter.

[MareeeyaDoloures]

You need the fire brigade in. Now. And an electrician to check the wiring.

Your mains operated alarms are on the blink, your automatic fire doors are automatically closing, and there has been unexplained smoke.

Probably an electrical fault, maybe even within the fire safety system itself. And your residents and colleagues are in immediate danger.

[MareeeyaDoloures]

Fire doors and
Safety in care homes and the risks in those who don't comply with regulations

[TigerSwallowTail]

Yes I second what mareeeya says, ask for a fire safety officer to come round and do a check.

[MareeeyaDoloures]

I'm sure your area has visits too and you can also call the local fire brigade meanwhile, for advice and an immediate once-over.

They'd much rather comes out for an early warning or a false alarm, than after it's too late and there is a fire . And call yourself. The boss might tell you not to bother, and then you're stuck.

[Italiangreyhound]

Do let us know how it works out, hope it all gets sorted. Great advice Moreeeya.

[Italiangreyhound]

When my mum moved house she started talkng about aparitions in her new home. So I wondered if it might be a spiritual thing - it turned out her type of Dementia had hallucinations connected with it. I don't think it is wrong to consider the spitirtual implications of a thing, but there are often practical reasons why weird things happen too!

All the best.

[hiddenhome]

The fire system is maintained and tested weekly and inspected every year. I'll tell the manager that it's gone off randomly though, obviously I want the place to be safe.

[MareeeyaDoloures]

Annual maintenance checks don't mean it's working perfectly today. And fire alarm testing once a week shows the 'testing' settings work. It doesn't prove it would work properly in a real fire.

Assuming you have a modern system, the fire door shutting automatically is a safety thing that is only meant to happen when the system senses a fire. It should never happen without alarms going off. That means (weekly testing regardless) your alarm system is dodgy.

You saw smoke. The alarms have gone off twice. The fire door shutting system went off. That's 4 signs of fire. Just one would be grounds to have the fire brigade in to make absolutely sure there isn't something electric smouldering away.

[MareeeyaDoloures]

I'm worried your manager won't take it seriously. And if you show her the thread she may be busy saying you shouldn't post about work.

You need to speak to a fireman. Anonymously if you must. Just ask if the random Internet strangers are talking sense, or nonsense.

[MareeeyaDoloures]

Please do something tonight. The possibility of fires in care homes, hospitals, hotels etc isn't something to be left till it's the 'right time'.