The fire alarm system in the Hieminga Hall/library complex at Calvin College was one of the oldest systems on the campus. Parts were obsolete and hard to obtain. It had been retrofitted several times and rewired continuously. And as such, it didn’t always work.

In particular, the pull stations that hang on the walls, were not reliable. But, this didn’t concern the college too much.  The main thing was giving the appearance of a fire alarm system in the building.  After all, the school had relatively few fires and the fire marshal never actually tested the systems.  In fact, there was always some question as to who had jurisdiction; the city or the state.

But, as luck would have it, a new fire marshal came around and this fire marshal was going clean up the town, er campus.  Inparticular, he wanted to test the fire alarm system in the Hieminga Hall/library complex and this is where I came on to the scene.

Fortunately for the college, the fire marshal gave them advanced warning of his intentions.  And knowing that fire marshal was going to test a system that may or may not work, I was stationed, with a two way radio, in the basement of the building by the fire alarm panel.

On the fire alarm panel was a manual alarm switch and when that switch was activated, the building alarms would sound.  So, the plan was quite simple.  When he got on the radio to notify the staff that he was now going to pull the alarm, I was to flip the manual alarm switch.

And so it came to pass.  He got on the radio and notified the staff that the fire alarm was going to sound.  And on cue, I flipped the switch and the alarms sounded.

Unfortunately, I was a little too quick on the switch.  Nerves I guess.  Anyway, I flipped the switch before he could pull the alarm station. Fortunately, the fire marshal was too interested in the fact that the alarms were sounding to notice that the alarms sounded about a second before the station got pulled.  Details, details, details.

The fire marshal was impressed and the college passed.  Since the plan worked relatively easily, I was regularly called into service for the alarm inspections as that was not the only flaky system on the campus.

Fortunately, the campus had few fires.