As I was passing the cockpit while boarding my flight on a MD-88 on Friday I heard something new. The cockpit door was wide open and the airplane spit out two very audible automated warnings: "Fire- engine 1. Fire- engine 2."

I'm a very laid back traveler (and fortunately the person next to me was as well), so I figured this was just some sort of system test (or brilliant April fools joke), but I could imagine some travelers would be very spooked. Has anyone ever encountered this before or know why the warnings were triggered?