Fire Alarm Distraction

Do you need to get away or get into someplace but there is people all about and you need them gone? Why not activate the fire alarm? A Fire Alarm Distraction is when someone activates the fire alarm deliberately as a form of distraction. The intended result of this is to either get everyone out of the building or otherwise distract them by making them look for the source instead of the fire alarm setter. This of course goes against the intended use of the fire alarm, which is to only be pulled when there is a legitimate fire or even some other kind of emergency, but this is usually the only way for the person pulling the alarm in the first place.

A variant of this is when someone pulls the fire alarm to get out of an important event (such as a test), since people would be too busy finding out the source to consider continuing with the event.

This is generally done usually through manually pulling the fire alarm, although a variant has a person create a controlled source of fire (usually by lighting a cigarette) and holding it up to the carbon monoxide or smoke detector instead. One result that the character may consider when pulling the fire alarm is that it will set off the Telepathic Sprinklers, which can contribute to the chaos and buy more time for the person to escape.

An alternate variant is when the person, instead of activating the fire alarm, activates the sprinklers (which usually come on in response to a fire alarm) to achieve the same thing.

Needless to say, you should never try this in real life for any reason. An intentional false alarm is a criminal offense with very serious consequences.

Sub-Trope of We Need a Distraction. When the person pulls the fire alarm to get help, that's Alarm SOS. Note that an alarm that is being tripped for its intended purpose or as a means of demonstration of function is not an example (since it's more People Sit on Chairs). Not to be confused with Bavarian Fire Drill.

---

Examples:

Advertising

• This Xfinity commercial features an apartment resident who just got 5G Internet "kick people off" the network to improve the speed by pulling the fire alarm and making them evacuate. It's implied to not be the first time it's happened, as the other apartment residents give "Oh, No... Not Again!" reactions among hearing the alarm sounding, and the commercial ends with firefighters breaking into the man's apartment and telling him he's going to jail. Bonus points for the commercial using a realistic modern fire alarm sound effect instead of an older-style fire bell as commonly used in the media.

Anime & Manga

• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: It's well-established that thermoptic camouflage is foiled by water. So how does the Major deal with the cloaked Umibozu troops? She turns on the fire sprinklers.
• In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, Jolyne turns on the fire alarm sprinklers to disrupt Johngalli A.'s Stand's sense of direction. It doesn't work, as Jotaro points out the Stand is quickly evading the falling water to focus only on the air current.

Comic Strip

• Crabgrass: In this comic, after Miles is forced by the cool kids to perform the annual 3rd-year prank for them, Carla triggers the fire alarm to create a distraction so she and Kevin can find Miles.

Fan Works

• Alec Goes To Winslow has a variant of this trope. Instead of pulling the fire alarm, Alec throws a book at a sprinkler, setting it off and dousing himself- and the girls who were bullying his friend Taylor- in stinky water.

Films — Live-Action

• In The Company You Keep, when Neal is about to leave the hotel he's left his daughter Izzy at (so his brother Daniel can pick her up and take care of her), he sees the FBI has followed Daniel because they're looking for him. So Neal pulls the fire alarm so he can slip out of the hotel in the confusion.
• In Daredevil (2003), the blind Daredevil is in a final confrontation with the Kingpin, and can't track him as normal to fight. In a moment of inspiration, Daredevil triggers the room's sprinkler system, his enhanced hearing catches the sound of the water on Kingpin's body which creates a "visible" form for him to fight.
• Hard Boiled: When the villains, a gunrunning syndicate, is revealed to have hidden their weapons stash in the basement of a hospital and is ready to blow up the entire building, patients and all, to throw the police off their tracks, the police team who uncovered their plans managed to force an evacuation as one of the officers, Teresa, sets off the fire alarm on purpose by smashing it with her heels.
• In Heat, when Neil goes to kills Waingro at the hotel he's hiding out at (under surveillance by the LAPD), he pulls a fire alarm once he's in the hotel so he can pretend to be a hotel security man to get into Waingro's room.
• In Jason Bourne, the ever-resourceful Bourne floods a plaza with office workers by simultaneously setting off fire alarms in every building around the district. Watch the scene here.
• The Net (1995): Angela Bennett needs to get Ruth Marx off her terminal to access her files, so she links into the building's fire control, and triggers an alarm sensor. While everyone else in the office evacuates, Angela sneaks onto Ruth's terminal to download evidence that she and Jack Devlin are Praetorians bent on installing back-door malware on almost every network in the nation.

Literature

• A Scandal in Bohemia by Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes has Watson throw a plumber's smoke-rocket into Irene Adler's house so she'll rush to where she's hidden the compromising photograph, revealing its location.

Live-Action TV

• Battlestar Galactica (2003): In one episode, Baltar sets off a fire alarm to act as a distraction while he breaks into the lab where Gaeta has been working and destroy valuable evidence.
• In Big Mouth (2022) a fake fire alarm is started by "Big Mouse" to rescue Changho from the mental center he was trapped in. Jerry then arrives disguised as one of the firefighters and comes to get Changho out of there.
• The Brittas Empire: In "Back With A Bang", Helen needs to try to get a letter from the wife of a doctor she seduced during the time Brittas was being reconstructed from being crushed by a water tank. At one point, she tries to get everyone out of the building by lighting a cigarette and putting it to a smoke alarm. The building evacuates but she is unsuccessful in destroying the letter.
• The Drew Carey Show: One episode had Drew trying to impress his new bosses by organizing a talent show. He attempted to a do a one-man-band show but the audience naturally hate it. Oswald bails him out by hitting a fire alarm.
• Attempted in the final episode of Freaks and Geeks. Daniel has a test he was planning on cheating through only to discover the guy who was supposed to help him cheat is absent. So, he goes to pull the fire alarm to buy some time, but Mr. Rosso catches him in the act and assigns him to work with the A.V. Club.
• How I Met Your Mother: In the Season 8 episode, "P.S. I Love You", Ted encounters Jeanette. his last girlfriend before meeting The Mother, on the subway and believes she might be his destined love because they're both reading One Hundred Years of Solitude. He meets her again on the university campus when the fire alarm rang. But it turns out Jeanette is a stalker and she pulled the fire alarm so that she could meet him. While Ted finds this charming, his friends are creeped out by it.
• iCarly: In an attempt to get into detention, Carly pulls the fire alarm. A teacher bursts out of the lounge and demands to know if she's the one who did it... and then says he's glad she did because the microwave in the lounge had just burst into flames.
• Judge John Deed: Played with, when there is a bomb scare, and the fire alarm is then sounded to evacuate the building. This is done to prevent John from hearing a case. This backfires when John gathers the relevant people together, and begins the hearing in the judge's lodgings. Although they cannot proceed far without the paperwork, John has then established himself at hearing the case, which somebody was trying to prevent.
• Just Shoot Me!: At the end of "How the Finch Stole Christmas", the cast discover the joke gifts Finch left them.
  Narrator: But the Finch is clever, he always survives.
  Finch: [pulling on the fire alarm] Fire! Fire! Run for your lives!
• Killing Eve: In the Season 2 episode "The Hungry Caterpillar", as Eve is seducing her husband Niko in his classroom, he pulls her in for a kiss and she notices an apple on a desk. Thinking that Villanelle is nearby, Eve immediately walks down the hallway and triggers the fire alarm, making everyone evacuate the building.
• In "You Never Asked" from Lockwood & Co. (2023), Anthony Lockwood does this to cover his and Lucy's escape from the Fittes Ball after they are caught by a mercenary within the Black Library of the Fittes Agency. The world they live in being one in which real, dangerous ghosts come out at night, the alarm instead releases sprinklers from the ceiling which spray salt^note One of the top defences against ghosts, along with iron and silver. and a soothing voice telling everyone to make their way calmly and carefully to the nearest exit.
• In Episode 3 of Ms. Marvel (2022), Kamala is on the run from the Clan Destines, who had infiltrated her brother Aamir's wedding. To make sure no one gets hurt, Kamala pulls the fire alarm in the building so that everyone at the wedding can safely leave.
• Averted in an early episode of Parks and Recreation. Leslie considers pulling the alarm when she realizes her mom has shown up to a public forum that she knows is going to be a disaster. She doesn't go through with it due to it being illegal.
  • Subverted in a later episode. Chris catches Leslie giving Tom a "Shut Up" Kiss and she instinctively pulls the nearby alarm. It doesn't go off.
  Leslie: They should fix that.
• Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue: A little girl named Heather has parents who are being held prisoner on the 13th floor of a building. The Rangers have Heather pull the fire alarm, forcing everyone to evacuate while they search the building for the villains and Heather's parents.

Video Games

• Bully: Most of the buildings on campus have a fire alarm that Jimmy can pull, which causes any students and teachers inside to run for the exits. Sometimes it's necessary in order to complete certain tasks without being interrupted, but players can also do it for laughs. Dropping marbles in front of the door of the boys' dorm and then pulling the fire alarm is a favorite trick of many players.
• Early in Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza, John distracts the first terrorist, Tony, by triggering the fire alarm and sneaking behind Tony when the latter tries to investigate. The movie uses a different method.
• In Escape from Monkey Island, Guybrush can pull the fire alarm outside of Ozzie Mandrill's Pirate Transmogrification Academy to get Miss Rivers out of the building so he can steal some confiscated items.
  Guybrush: Never try this at home, boys and girls. False fire alarms cost lives.
• Fear Effect: The brothel escape from the first game has Glas escaping his cell, sneaking through a crowded kitchen (while avoiding being spotted - get caught by any guards and Glas dies instantly in a cutscene) and eventually making it to a fire alarm, where Glas will trigger it on purpose causing sprinklers to go off everywhere in the kitchen, scattering everyone while Glas takes down several guards during the confusion.
• Life Is Strange: After Max rewinds time following Nathan's murder of Chloe, she pulls the fire alarm during their confrontation. This distracts Nathan enough that Chloe can kick him in the groin.
• Perfect Dark Zero's first mission has Joanna provide ground support for her dad Jack while the two investigate a Hong Kong nightclub. Contact with Jack is lost and Joanna needs to go inside and check on him, but between the armed guards inside and the none-the-wiser club patrons dancing the night away civilian casualties are very likely, which would cause mission failure. One way to deal with it is to hack the fire alarm system to go off and cause the patrons to evacuate, allowing Joanna free reign to shoot at the guards without fear of civilians in the crossfire.
• In Tales of Phantasia, the doors in Gnome's lair are guarded by tiny gnomelettes who will not let you pass, no matter how many times you kick their butts... But there's an alarm you can activate which will make these gnomelettes abandon their posts in a hurry to inspect the noise, leaving the doors unguarded.

Webcomics

• El Goonish Shive: During the "Sister" arc, Susan pulls the fire alarm to evacuate the school when a giant goo creature attacks. Ellen assumes someone pulled it to get out of a test.

Western Animation

• Amphibia: In "Adventures in Catsitting", the Plantars find Domino in a shwarma stand filled with customers, and they need to get him out of there without exposing themselves to the humans. Hop Pop gets the brilliant idea of mimicking the sound of a fire alarm to draw the people out of the stand thinking that there's a fire in the building.
• Arthur: In the episode "April 9th", the students of Lakewood Elementary have to attend Mighty Mountain because of the fire caused by some faulty wiring. In one scene where the students are preparing a take a test, someone has activated the fire alarm. Francine reveals to Arthur and Buster that it was a false alarm, and that someone pulled the fire alarm as a prank. It turns out that Binky was the culprit of pulling the fire alarm. As a result, he is in big trouble, and he has to write an apology letter to Mr. Haney and the Mighty Mountain principal.
• Bob's Burgers:
  • In "Synchronized Swimming", the Belcher children make up a fake synchronized swimming class to get out of regular gym class. When Mr. Frond demands an actual performance, Louise tries several methods to get the performance canceled. She tries pulling the fire alarm, but Mr. Frond claims that the swimming pool is the safest place to be during a fire, so no one evacuates before the alarm is found out to be fake.
  • In "The Runway Club", the students in Saturday detention manage to convince Mr. Frond to let them leave early, so when Principal Spoors shows up to check in on them, Mr. Frond panics and pulls the fire alarm as a distraction while he runs out of the building. This is a Brick Joke from earlier in the episode when we learn how the students got detention, part of which came from one of them pulling the fire alarm in confusion
• Hey Arnold!: In the episode "False Alarm", Eugene is accused of pulling the school fire alarm and, while everyone else thinks Eugene is guilty, Arnold thinks he was framed. Arnold's right; it was Curly who pulled the fire alarm.
• Miraculous Ladybug: In "Despair Bear", Chloe pulls the fire alarm to interrupt a baking class taught by her arch-rival Marinette's father. She then attempts to blame Marinette herself for the incident, and ends up getting the whole class (except for herself, as the mayor's daughter) punished by not coming forward. This causes even her ever-patient childhood friend Adrien to threaten to stop being her friend if she doesn't stop being so mean.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998): In "Down N' Dirty", Buttercup has gotten extremely stinky because she has not bathed in several days due to her dislike of baths. When she arrives at Pokey Oaks Kindergarten after battling a monster, her odor disgusts Ms. Keane and the other students. Ms. Keane pulls the fire alarm and tells the students that there's a fire drill and they need to leave the school. The students all run out cheering because they don't have to smell Buttercup's odor, and Ms. Keane tells Buttercup to stay behind.
• Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?:
  • In "Revenge of the Swamp Monster", the titular monster is chasing Scooby, Shaggy, and Chris Paul through an art school. As the monster closes in on them, Shaggy activates a fire alarm pull station and shouts "Fire drill!" The alarm bells are so loud that the monster runs out of the building in fear to get away from the noise.
  • In "Now You Sia, Now You Don't", Sia's doppelganger ghost pulls the fire alarm in a jewelry store in order to set off the sprinklers and slow down the gang enough for her to escape.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "A Test Before Trying", Bart convinces Skinner to pull the fire alarm to clear out the building and give Bart one more day of studying for an important exam. When deciding whether to do it or not, Skinner's Good Angel, Bad Angel consciences appear; the "angel" Skinner warns not to pull a false fire alarm, but the "devil" Agnes exclaims "You wimp!" and activates the pull station, setting off the school bell and all the sprinklers.
  • In "To Cur With Love", Bongo (Homer's old dog) saves Homer from having to take a test by pulling a fire alarm, then doing the same again when Homer has to take a dental check-up. The next shot after this is Homer's school on fire, with everyone presumably inside still thinking that it was another false alarm.
• In an episode of 6teen, Jonesy mentions getting grounded after pulling the fire alarm to get out of math class, and Jude thanks him for it due to it getting him out of dissecting a worm in biology class.
• In the South Park episode, "Cartman Gets An Anal Probe", Chef pulls the fire alarm so that the boys can leave school and rescue Ike when he has been abducted by alien visitors.

Real Life

• During the Stoneman-Douglas High School shooting, it was reported widely that the gunman had pulled the fire alarm in order to lure students outside and kill them.

---