I am told that at the House Committee meeting. the issue pertaining to the fire safety status of the building was extensively discussed. The concerns are twofold:

1) The pull alarms do not directly communicate the presence of a fire to the FDNY; rather, the alarm only goes to the office of the Super, who must then contact the appropriate authorities. If noone is present in the office, the alarm will fall on deaf ears (or deafen floors of confused residents). Action is supposedly being taken to correct this issue (which is not minor at all in my opinion).

2) Some of the hallway smoke alarms have not functioned properly in incidents of fire/smoke. One person remarked that thick smoke emanating from an adjacent apartment did not set off the hallway alarm; it took a phone call from the concierge to alert him to the situation. When there's a real fire, every second counts, so this is hardly acceptable from a safety standpoint.

So if you see a fire then by all means pull the alarm, but call the FDNY yourself to expedite the emergency response. My sources tell me it was acknowledged that many of our residential smoke detectors are overly sensitive, but that is far better than undersensitive in any instance. Even if it does get annoying (as CL chefs know), it's best people don't silence their detectors, even temporarily. The risk is too great of forgetting or even maiming the device.

Hope that helps

-J