“For Safety”. Riiiiight.

I work in a lab, and one of the safety procedures we need to follow is to keep the door to the lab closed. This is a fireproof door for safety.

One evening, just at the time most people are leaving, we hear a weird, slow beep. We think it is coming from the flow hood as it has been having a few issues and randomly beeps at us. We get more confused as we realise that it is not the hood, but we can’t work out where the noise is coming from.

Someone gets bored and decides it is time to go home. He opens the lab door. As soon as he does that, a loud blast echos down the entire lab. The noise we had been trying to locate for five to ten minutes was the fire alarm. The fireproof door is also a soundproof one.

Luckily, it was just a test, but we did have to text others in the lab to tell them to get out. We are now having a stern talk with the safety people while agreeing that if there is a fire we are, literally, toast.