Inspector Sands Often heard as: “Could Inspector Sands please report to the…” Means: There is a fire Inspector Sands or Mr Sands is one of the most commonly used emergency codes for indicating that there is a fire in the vicinity.
If a fire has been reported, a tanoy announcement will ask for Inspector Sands to make their way to a specified area, which is where the suspected fire is. This phrase originates from theatres where in the past a bucket of sand would be kept for extinguishing fires.
In more recent times it has been widely adopted by public entertainment venues, shopping centres and railway stations including on the London Underground. On hearing a call for Inspector Sands, station staff have a set period of time in which to investigate before issuing a full-scale evacuation.
If you’re a regular commuter, you may already be familiar with Inspector Sands, as on the tube it is often automatically played when a fire detector has been triggered. Underground staff also use a variation of this, ‘Inspector Gravel’ which is code for a bomb alert.