On Wednesday, Sep. 4 at around 9 p.m., residents of E1, the newest building of The Elements residential block were forced out of their apartments by a sudden fire alarm. Residents waited nearly a half hour outside before the fire department arrived, leaving them with many questions regarding the safety of the building.
According to a Fireman on the scene, the alarms were caused by two separate units being triggered at the same time, both presumably by cooking fires. The source explained that the alarm system in the building is set up so that one alarm going off won’t trigger the whole system, but two units going off at the same time will cause all alarms in the building to trigger.
Two other alarms had gone off in the day before this event, with the first happening at 8:30 a.m. the morning before, with a similar cause. The second happened around midnight the same day, setting off some alarms, but not the whole system, causing many residents to be unaware of the event. That alarm was caused by a malfunctioning detector unit. The fire department said they will contact the alarm company for a temporary fix. They are waiting for a representative to come down and reprogram it, expected on Tuesday. A Houghton County firefighter is being stationed at the building until the system can be reprogrammed.
The constant fire alarms have some worrying about the safety of the buildings. Residents have pointed out that while there are multiple fire extinguishers in the hallways, there are none in the actual rooms. Others are concerned about the general unfinished state of E1, especially with the colder weather in the coming months.
Neither The Elements management nor the Houghton Fire Chief responded to requests for comment, but E1 resident Hailey Engel said that she was “frustrated with Elements’ lack of communication regarding the alarms.” Engel had similar complaints about the lack of communication regarding concerns with the plumbing and the air conditioning. “Ultimately, I don’t feel unsafe, but I can’t rule out the possibility of that happening later.”
Gabe Roberts, another E1 resident, agreed with Engel’s frustration, saying that the event itself was “very stressful,” as they grew concerned about what was actually happening in the building. “We still have received no recognition of this from The Elements, which makes me anxious for future problems of this magnitude,” they said.
