Do Fire Alarms Really Squirt Ink? Fire Alarm Myth?

Have you ever been told that fire alarms squirt ink? Is this really true?

[badstate]

Ink squirting fire alarms exist in the same universe as pool water that turns purple when you pee in it.

[MikeStavola]

My school used the tamper dye, hidden in the handles in an effort to catch the person who was pulling an alarm every single day for weeks.

[IxodesPersulcatus]

The real ink was the security camera we made along the way.

[jonathonmerrell]

My middle school had to have “ink” applied to our fire alarms because kids were pulling them sometimes a couple times a day

[tuamaputanna]

As a european, americans have the coolest fire alarms. No wonder students like to pull them this much

[forcedhaircut]

there’s also this hollywood thing where sprinklers set off when the alarm sounds when i’m pretty sure a sprinkler rod has to reach a certain temp to even break one

[SolluxDivide]

So what Im hearing is, all I need is Gloves?

[fangthewarrior]

That dirty water is so funny, bet those guys with the pans weren't expecting that. Gonna be quite the clean up

[markmarkofkane]

If you want to catch someone, just use cameras.

[Nny_V]

so many people were pulling the alarm at my school that they just installed more camera's facing them. then people just started messing with the fire exits instead.

[potatoheadpokemario]

As a kid that actually pulled a fore alarm before, they don't leave ink

[shane_gentle]

But still, don't pull a fire alarm in a building unless there's a fire or you're testing the alarm and you have authorization.

[smky]

I love discovering a channel every now and then that has the most niche interests, but you learn a lot and it's a fun watch. It's a gem when it happens.

[GizmoRBLX]

0:44 the hobbyists in me was like "oh that's where you put the screwdriver for the screw"

[xXyellowsnwxX]

In my high school, they put a powdered dye on the inside of the handle (we had the pull handle switches) So you would contact the dye if you had pulled the fire alarm, I literally saw the powder on the inside of the handle, my school's deterrent was less of a myth and just true.

[siphonralarms]

I never believed the rumor/myth, but I always thought it would be a pretty good way to deter false alarms. I’d really like to rig up one of my pull stations to a device that sprays Liquid A$$ on you when you pull the handle, that would be something lol

[warhawkjah]

A couple possible explanations for the origin of the myth. The first was from the My Teacher is an Alien series of kids books; I remember reading one as a kid when the main character pulls the alarm and gets squirted. It’s also possible the myth existed before the book was written (80s and 90’s) and the author just proliferated it.

The other could be from real life anti shoplifting devices I remember seeing in the 90s. There was a warning on them that said tampering would cause the device to squirt ink.

[bostonrailfan]

this myth spread through my school due to being brand new alarms in a new school and in plastic coverings with custodians telling us they had dye inside but it got mangled to being squirted at us.

we saw it for real on a couple of knuckleheads twice, they were caught “redhanded” by the deputy fire chief outside the school as he entered to reset the alarms and saw their hand

[photonik-luminescence]

Very interesting and educational video on the silent but important safety equipment attached to walls.

[bland]

The handcuff thing might actually be useful for two reasons One the obvious of detering someone from pulling a false alarm but also secondly if the person sees a fire the firefighter know exactly which person saw it and can ask them directly for more info.