This browser does not support the Video element.
Faulty sensor triggers days-long alarm at former Iranian Embassy in DC
It was an alarm that blared at the former Iranian embassy since last Friday night. That’s when D.C. Fire says the original call came in for an alarm going off at the former embassy. FOX 5's David Kaplan has the story.
WASHINGTON - It was an alarm that blared at the former Iranian embassy since last Friday night.
That’s when D.C. Fire says the original call came in for an alarm going off at the former embassy.
The U.S. State Department’s Office of Foreign Missions preserves and maintains buildings owned by a foreign mission, but no longer occupied by them.
According to the State Department’s website, the U.S. and Iran have had no formal diplomatic relations since 1980.
Faulty sensor triggers days-long alarm at former Iranian Embassy in DC
D.C. Fire was the agency that responded to the building on Embassy Row on Massachusetts Avenue nearly each time someone called 911 but determined that there was likely no emergency, and couldn’t enter the building until the State Department was able to help them get in.
"As people passed by, they’ve heard an audible alarm at the former embassy, and the fire department has been sent out to investigate," said Danny McCoy, D.C. Fire’s deputy chief for special operations and homeland security.
McCoy says, in all, six people called 911 in the last few days, typically passersby.
Serena Wiltshire lives nearby and was thankful she couldn’t hear the alarm from her home, but heard it while walking her dog on Massachusetts Avenue.
"When I walked the dog up to Massachusetts Avenue, about a block away from it, I started to hear it," Wiltshire said.
Faulty sensor triggers days-long alarm at former Iranian Embassy in DC
McCoy says in the case of an active embassy, D.C. Fire is often welcomed in, especially if there’s an emergency, but the process can be slowed a bit when they need to be granted access by another entity.
"Situations like this, when the building is locked up, we can’t get in, we contact the State Department, or the service, and we go through the process of finding out who’s responsible if they can get somebody out to assist us," McCoy said, while adding fire officials determined there was no emergency when they responded.
Monday, D.C. Fire and the State Department went into the building, determined it was likely a faulty sensor causing the alarm to go off, shut it off, and then left.
D.C. Fire confirmed the alarm went off again overnight.
A State Department spokesperson says the fix is in the works and declined comment on why it took multiple days for the alarm to be shut off.