6:47 a.m.-2:47 p.m. September 11, 2001: Fire Alarm System in WTC 7 Is in ‘Test Condition’

The fire alarm system in World Trade Center Building 7 is placed on “test condition,” which causes any alarms to be ignored, for a period of eight hours. At 6:47 a.m., the system is placed in a “TEST: ALL” condition. This usually happens when maintenance or other testing is being performed on it. While the system is in this condition, any alarms that are received are considered to be the result of the maintenance or testing and are ignored. Additionally, any alarm signals do not appear on the operator’s display. However, records of the alarm are recorded in the system’s history file. The alarm system automatically returns to normal monitoring after eight hours, which means it does so at 2:47 p.m. [National Institute of Standards & Technology, 6/2004, pp. 28, 94] However, no alarm signals will be received after that time, even though WTC 7 subsequently suffers some large fires (see 4:10 p.m. September 11, 2001). A report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology will later suggest the reason for this could be that “either the building alarm system was not functioning after about 2:47 p.m.… or… the offsite monitoring system or its link to WTC 7 was incapacitated in some way.” A fire is detected by the system, though, at one time while it is in test condition. This occurs at 10:00 a.m., just after the South Tower collapses (see 10:00 a.m. September 11, 2001). [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 11/2008, pp. 69-70] The alarm system is placed on test condition today at the request of a person with the surname Williams. Further details of this person are unknown. The system has been placed on test condition every morning for the last seven days (see September 4-10, 2001). [National Institute of Standards & Technology, 6/2004, pp. 94]