I go outside. Immediately.
The last three fire alarms in my office have all been due to the building being on fire.
It was 1AM on a late fall night in Northern New Jersey. Alarm went off, I threw on some clothes and headed for the stairs. I went outside just as the fire trucks pulled up.
after several minutes it was clear there was no fire, but they would not let us back into the lobby until the all clear was sounded.
I about froze my nuts off as I did not have a jacket.
The next time the alarm went off, I just headed down to the lobby with my jacket in hand. I sat there calmly until the all clear was sounded.
I’ve heard, from people in that field of work, that books or papers stored in standard archive boxes have been shown through experience to actually be very well protected from water & smoke damage when in a standard sprinkler system. I suspect that the only reasons for having a Halon system would be the ‘other’ ones.
I was in the British Library once when the alarms went off, and it was clearly not a planned drill because security staff started clearing the building straight away. In my hands was a unique surviving sixteenth-century book. I left the book on the table. So I was very pleased that it was a false alarm. I could have made my name in one particular field that day, albeit in infamy.
A lot of it depends on where I am, and what sort of alarm is going off.
If I’m in my apartment, and it’s the individual alarms in my apartment going off - it’s probably because I’m cooking, and the oven overheated, again. So I’d temporarily disable the alarm and continue what I was doing.
If I’m visiting my parents, and their central alarm goes off, I’ll investigate to try to determine the source of the alarm. (The individual smoke detectors have lights on them that will flash to show which one is alarming.) If the alarm seems to be malfunctioning, I’d stick around that area, checking walls, while waiting for the FD, anyways, but wouldn’t evacuate. If there is a fire, it would depend on whether I thought I could control it, or not, for what my actions might be.
If I’m in a public building and a random alarm goes off - I’m evacuating.
In our building we have a series of tones that we’re all versed in (plus, it actually SAYS if you should stay put, evacuate, or you can go back to your floor). I’m on the 19th floor, so I always really hope it stays at ‘There has been an alarm incident in the building and the fire services have called. Please remain in your office.’
I always get anxious in the stairwells, but I know they’re safe.
Throw a shoe at the door.
If that were the case, then I’d certainly leave the building.
Never to return.
Go outside. I’m a workaholic, but I’m not gonna become barbecue in the name of work if I have my druthers. :dubious:
No, it’s perfectly explicable: people are idiots.
Indeed, the rational mind tries to reject this conclusion, but cannot. You can’t go a week around here without being reminded somehow of the Station Nightclub disaster, and so I boggle at how people can be so glib at the (very real) prospect of burning up. A really horrible way to die (not that any way is great).
I work as the senior installation, service and repair technician for a small fire alarm company. Always exit a building if the fire alarm sounds. You might be interrupted for a short time, but you will still be alive. Standing out in the parking lot complaining that the alarm woke you up, or that you had work to do sure beats burning to death. A working fire doubles in size every thirty seconds. It is easy to get trapped in a burning building. Exit the building using the designated fire exits and stairwells. Absolutely do not get in an elevator.
As an alarm technician, I do not care if the building burns to the ground. I just want everyone standing outside, roasting marsmallows and complaining that the alarm makes too much noise…
I get out. When I was the “Safety Guy” I’d get out but have to hassle an untold number of dickheads along the way. Back then, I also was one of the only people to know in advance of drills. Of course I wasn’t supposed to tell anybody, but there was one woman who was of such a nervous disposition that I’d tell her, “At 1:20pm, the alarm will go off. It’ll be loud and jarring. It’ll also be a drill. Make sure you happen to be near the door.”
If there is any evidence of a real fire, I will be out the door in nothing flat. If however there is no evidence of a fire, I will sit in a nice comfy chair 10 feet from the front door until the all clear sounds.
I’m the Emergency Building Manager for my dept. at work, so I need to go out and do a sweep (if possible) to make sure everyone else is complying, too. Even without this (strictly volunteer) responsibility, I would still always go, though.
Per the training course I took, if people refuse to leave, the instruction is to leave them and notify the relevant person. Me? At home, I’m out the door PDQ. When I was a fire warden, it was my job to check part of the site before exitting. When I worked at the airport, there were two exit routes: to the car park and onto the flight pan. Obviously we tried to use the former if possible.
I’d run around with my hands in the air screaming, “oh my god, were all going to die.”
Leave the building now. Sorry for your discomfort and inconvenience, but not a trillionth as sorry as I’d be for the firefighter who died trying to find/rescue you because the fire took less time to block your exit than it took you to realize it wasn’t a false alarm after all.
If I am in a hotel I put on my shoes, grab a towel to put around my neck, and go out. This was instilled in me when I was in college. In a Boston hotel this summer, an alarm went off and they told us to stay put, and I did–it was a false alarm. In Las Vegas in January, they told people to stay put but it WAS a fire (as it happened, I was across the street watching smoke pour off the roof, calling my friends back at the hotel to tell them to leave). My inclination will always be to get out.
At work I’d leave because, hey, work break.
Getting out when the alarm sounds can also save you great embarassment. More than once I’ve forced the door of an apartment and found a couple in flagrante delicto. 
It’s a mood killer when two guys wearing air masks boot in your door and yell at you to get out of the building, now. 
The only times I’ve experienced emergency alarms it’s been in places with lots of nasty chemicals around.
I’d grab my jacket, my handbag, my laptop (leaving the cord behind, as it plugs real tight into its slot but it would be much easier to replace than the computer itself) and hie my ass outside. Then I’d proceed to complain about how bloody cold it is this week, dangit.
I’m a self-employed contractor, so my laptop is my office and I really, really, really don’t want to argue with the insurance company about its worth if I can help it.