Monday, December 17, 2012

Stop, drop and roll with it

Last week Wednesday an e-mail was sent to all of our office announcing that we would have a fire drill at 2 p.m. today, Monday.

Okaaay - announcing a fire drill in advance rather defeats the purpose, no?

Further communications indicated that everyone must vacate the building, including all patrons of our recreation center (which includes a popular swimming pool).

Well, duh. Isn't that the purpose of a drill?

At 1:47, the alarm began to blare. We thought Public Safety simply couldn't tell time, but grabbed our coats and high-tailed it to the parking lot.

Two minutes later, a P.S. Officer made the rounds, telling us that they had an "incident" that set off the alarms, but that we'd count this as our drill; they'd get us back into the building as soon as possible. It seems they were planning to blow smoke through some vents to test the responsiveness of the system; while setting the test up, some of that tricky smoke escaped and set off the alarms for real.

We were back at our desks before the originally scheduled time of the drill.

I appreciate the effort they make to keep us safe. I honestly cannot remember a fire drill in the three years I spent in the dorms during my college years. But then, I lived in an all-girl, mostly upperclassman building not exactly known for its rowdiness. Maybe they figured we knew what to do?

The advance notice served its purpose, though, as no one had to stand in the frosty wind in a soaking wet swimming suit, or just out of the shower. I only hope they were able to test what they needed to test, so they don't reschedule for a colder day.

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