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Oh, where to begin. The most infamous one I've been involved with was when we were performing a play, in the middle of the third act the fire alarm goes off, the iron curtain drops and the entire theatre (Audience+performers=450 people) evacuates to the square outside. After a few minutes the entire Katarina firesquad comes with blaring sirens... theatre fires are not funny. It turns out that a heat detector line had its insulation chafed off and when we used the smoke machine mist condensated on the exposed wires and set it off. For some reason there was a persistant rumor that lasted for several years that it was a turned on cell phone that set the alarm off. I don't know why. Honestly.
Another time, at our local Student Union house, a friend of mine had got the bright idea to set up a stove and fry meatballs in the basement. Of course this set off the smoke detector and the fire alarm of doom starts ringing out through the entire house. Our group evacuated like good citizens, but there was a bunch of students who remained in the house. Even though they were sitting under a ringing bell the size of a pizza plate they kept on studying! They said it was just a false alarm (like they would know!), so they didn't need to leave. I don't understand how they could sit there at all, the sound was terrible. Anyway, my brawny friend pretty much dragged them out and told them that it doesn't matter whether it's a false alarm or not, everyone must go OUT! My meatball-frying friend got fined roughly 1200$ for her thoughtlessness.
I have an unholy fear of fires, so I hardly ever ignore a fire alarm.
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