urban legend? ink spraying fire alarms?

[cstreit]

Okay so weve probably all heard this rumor when we were 8. Now my 8 year old asked me...

You pull the fire alarm in school/church/office and it sprays UV ink on your hands.

Can anyone definitively say whether or not this is true, false, or sometimes? Im looking for first hand experience not a wikipedia article. :-)

[GWN7]

I've never seen one in the 31 years I dealt with them, but I've been retired for almost 2 years.

[M.D. Holloway]

nope...but don't pull one unless there is a fire dagnabbit!

[masraum]

I've never heard that before.

[stomachmonkey]

The units in our HS had a glass vial with a greenish/yellowish fluorescent like fluid in it that would break if you pulled the lever.

Might have been nothing more than a visual aid to determine if the unit had been tampered with but I can certainly see how it would have given the impression of something else.

[vash]

I asked my fire Marshall. She said they don't exist. I asked about a year ago.

[masraum]

From snopes.com

snopes.com: Urine Revealing Pool Chemical

A similar baseless rumor about naughty perpetrators being caught red-handed (so to speak) has to do with school fire alarms. A number of kids have heard these mechanisms are booby-trapped with a packet of red dye that will spray upon whoever pulls the lever, marking him as the one who did the deed. (Yes, dyes are sometimes used with fire alarms to help catch pranksters who take perverse delight in setting off false alarms, but those dyes have come into widespread use only fairly recently, and they are most commonly used as booby-traps set by investigators who have some idea who the perpetrator is or where he will strike next, not as a permanent feature of the alarms. Most kids who were told that all of their schools' fire alarms were set to mark anyone who triggered them with a special dye were being hoaxed with a bit of deterrent fiction.)

[ZOO]

Slightly off topic, but I worked at a school that was, for a while, experiencing a ton of false pulls. The auto teacher solved it with a big dab of axle grease in each alarm's handle. Problem solved . . .

[URY914]

I know those bank bags have "dye packs" in them. They're a pain to get off your hands.

[David]

I've heard of dusting them with silver nitrate but don't know if anyone actually does it.

[biosurfer1]

They ABSOLUTELY do exist and I have seen them personally, only its not glow in the dark ink or UV ink...its just regular old ink. They had them at the dorms in college. If you pulled an alarm, it broke a little vial that got on your hands or whatever else.

Several times when someone pulled the alarm, when we got outside, we all had to hold up our hands as the dorm manager walked around with the fire dept. Twice that I can remember they caught people trying to leave the area and they had the ink on them.

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by URY914

I know those bank bags have "dye packs" in them. They're a pain to get off your hands.

Use tomato juice!

[URY914]

Originally Posted by flipper35

Use tomato juice!

I'll try that tomorrow, thanks!

[aigel]

No matter if it is true or not, I would definitely keep that legend alive with my 8 year old son! Especially when they ask!

Interesting to hear accounts of this being an actual feature. Makes sense in high prank risk areas, like school and colleges.

G

[vash]

i dont think they exist.

i just flipped thru a catalog. we just installed nearly a hundred alarm switches. i cant find them in a catalog. i am tempted to call them..but i wont.

my fire marshall said it is just a "boogie man" story to keep kids honest.

and besides, if they do exist i am 90% sure it would require a warning sign. very similar to those alarmed escaped doors that fire up alarms. they have signs warning the person.."open this door, you will trigger the alarm".

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by biosurfer1

They ABSOLUTELY do exist and I have seen them personally, only its not glow in the dark ink or UV ink...its just regular old ink. They had them at the dorms in college. If you pulled an alarm, it broke a little vial that got on your hands or whatever else.

Several times when someone pulled the alarm, when we got outside, we all had to hold up our hands as the dorm manager walked around with the fire dept. Twice that I can remember they caught people trying to leave the area and they had the ink on them.

What college did you go to where the students couldn't figure out to wear disposable gloves after the first time?

[McLovin]

Anyways, I went down to the elementary school and pulled the fire alarm this morning to test this theory. No ink.

[aigel]

Ok, I did a search:

Manual fire alarm activation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikipedia links a source for the ink story and it sure appears to exist. Make sense, the local high school may decide to buy the paint separately from the fire alarm. This is a very non-violent way of getting this on your hands, so a single disposable glove is all that's needed to defeat

Tamper Dye — Safety Media Inc.

[URY914]

There you have it.....

[Red88Carrera]

We had some idiot pulling the alarm in our military dorm back in the 80's. That's how they caught him.