Heh, I had it in my mind that exactly this would happen. Although I've personally yet to experience even one, I'm glad to know typical EAxian odds are still apparently afoot. I was getting worried.
Yeah i knew the same sort of thing might happen. I haven't had another earthquake for over a week now after earthquakes nearly every single day. I'd really like to know the actual odds of it happening because i'm not really convinced it was just awful luck.
This is definitely very annoying. Especially if you start working from home. Then you get annoying messages about poorly maintained equipment, even when you can't really use the fire department fire engine anymore (because the sim always prefers to use their own personal fire engine).
The maintenance is sort of odd. I think all fire alarms might be connected so you repair one you repair them all. Fire engines however i think each have their own status.
Also, the new pop-up system doesn't work too well. Apart from being stupid and sucky, it seems to bring back messages that have already been dismissed whenever a new notification pops up.
As far as i can tell it's the fact that the new system doesn't delete messages unless you click the X box or if it does it takes its time. They seem to disappear and stay there until you hit the X box later. Personally i prefer the new system since it's not such a massive clutter. Although it can get a bit annoying sometimes.