You are assuming everyone has the same level of hearing. There is people with hearing loss around you without you even noticing. For those people an alarm might be just "right", not too loud.

Curiosity might be an ingredient but my uninformed opinion is that it's more related to the power to control a destructive force. Somehow it is natural or evolutive to know that something that is very harmful is not hurting you at all. At some point we learn that harm to others ends up in harm to you through more complex patterns. We only resort to harm others to obtain something in life threatening circumstances or when the person lacks this bit in their mind (a psychopath). A fireplace is the least destructive fire. Completely different emotion vs. seeing someone else's house burn, seeing something loved be destroyed.