Fire Alarm

So last night Elle fell asleep about 8:45. She was down until about 10:00 (when Chris and I were trying to go to bed) and then started fussing every 15 minutes or so. She's teething and stuffy, and I'm sure still adjusting to a new environment, but we haven't had a solid nights sleep since we got here and it's starting to wear on all of us. About this time Mops starts acting weird as well. She get shaking and running back into the living room or to Elle's door. She wouldn't stay in bed or settle down if she was in bed. So for about an hour I'm trying to get Elle to stay in her bed and Chris is dealing with Mops. The kids have mandatory study time from 8 pm to 10 pm and then lights out is 11 pm. A little after lights out ( just as Chris and I had gotten Elle to sleep, gotten Mops back in bed, and laid down) the fire alarm goes off. The alarm is so loud and the strobe lights are so bright! It's like firecrackers going off in the apartment. I immediately ran to Elle's room and picked her up, Chris corrals Mops, and we all run out the back door to the fire escape and out the door. Chris says he has to run in and get some stuff. Later on I realized it was his pants! I'm trying to keep Elle calm and get Mops to come close enough that I can grab her, but at this point the girls start coming out too. Mops is in total panic barking at everyone and I didn't grab my glasses so everything is fuzzy. The girls have to get over by the gate and line up by floor where the "House Mouse" (one of the seniors who has a list of everyone on the floor) takes role. The boys are on the other side of the dorms, which is a good thing since we were all in our pajamas. Chris came back out pretty quickly and grabbed Mops. The police showed up first and then the fire department. The police made the girls line back up for a head count. The boys were missing a couple of people for a while, but I haven't heard as to why yet. Eventually, the firefighters came out and they determined it was a malfunction in the system. (Earlier in the day they had been testing smoke alarms in the dorms, which may have caused a problem.) We came back in at 12:05 and Chris had to go let girls back into their room and make sure everyone was inside. Elle stayed calm throughout the whole thing and actually wound back down pretty quick. Needless to say she ended up sleeping in our bed.