FIRE!! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!

[customersruinmylife]

OK, slightly dramatic title. OK, little back story, my bar is next to a hotel,so we practically share a building with it. There are floors above the bar that are part of the hotel. Because of this, our fire alarms are connected to theirs, so that if there was a fire at the hotel, or at our bar, we could all be aware of it.

So, Sunday lunch shift...

MEEMAW! MEEMAW! MEEMAW!

Oh great, fire alarm is going off. I go and check the system. Fire alarm isn't ours, it is the hotels. Nine times out of ten when this happens, it is because a stupid customer has left the shower on and it has set off everything.

Manager: OK, I'll run to the hotel and find out what's going on.

So, the manager runs to the hotel reception. The staff and I divide up into groups and walk up to the customers.

Me: OK guys! The alarm isn't ours, it belongs to the hotel. Our manager has just gone to find out the situation and will return in a minute. It's probably nothing, but if you feel uncomfortable and want to leave, please do so calmly through these doors.

Customers start to leave...slowly. The manager still isn't back.

Oh great, SC, armed with children comes up to the bar.

SC: What's going on??
Me: We don't know at the moment sir. We are just waiting for the manager to return. It is probably a false alarm, we get them quite often.
SC: How can you not know what is going on??
Me: I don't know what's going on, all I know is that the alarm isn't in the bar, but could be upstairs, and that is if there is a fire in the first place.
SC: Why won't you tell me what's going on?
Me: I don't know what's going on!
SC: You HAVE to tell the customers what is going on! We are in DANGER!
Me: Sir, if there were any danger, I am sure we would be aware of it by now.
SC: Quickly children! It's not safe here! We have to leave!

He grabs them and runs out the door in a very panicky way. This actually alarms other customers and they start grabbing their things and running out the doors!

The manager returns...shaking his head.

Manager: Yup, some idiot left his shower on again! It's a false alarm!

By this point, we have probably lost about a third of our customers. I start walking around the bar.

Me: OK everyone, it was a false alarm, you are perfectly safe. Someone left their shower on in the hotel upstairs!

Luckily, every customer that stayed behind was fine with it. But I am so annoyed at that idiot before. If there had been a real fire, people like him are the ones who make people panic, and people get hurt when that happens.

[Lingering Grin]

Wow...over-react much? lol

Worse case scenario: It's a FIRE, not a BOMB... they're will be plenty of time for you to walk the 15 feet to the door and get out of the building!


If I was there, I probably would've just ordered another beer

[customersruinmylife]

If I was there, I probably would've just ordered another beer

A lot of customers did! Especially the regulars. It has happened quite a few times at our bar before, and each time it is the same, either someone has been smoking in their room, or they have left the shower on or bath running.

[crazylegs]

Short of being in a fireworks factory or a paper mill there really isn't the need to exit any 'burning' building any faster than a meander, however if you are told to leave, you leave, no argument no discussion, you leave.

[Boozy]

It's always been the opposite whenever I hear an alarm go. No one cares. Even if someone comes over and tells people to get their arses out, they still sort of meander towards the exits, browsing along the way.

[Cyphr]

I garuntee if she was in the fireworks factory when it caught on fire she would stay inside and watch

[CanadaGirl]

Anyone else wonder why she had her kids with her in a bar? ...

[Bobsentme]

SC: Quickly children! It's not safe here! We have to leave!

If those children were smarter, they'd have known it probably wasn't safe to leave with the worry wart either!

[cinema guy]

At the cinema we are trained that people need leadership in an evacuation situation, because they will either do nothing or, worse, head towards the fire to see what is going on.

I would have thought that in the event of an alarm, evacuation of a bar/restauarant was mandatory.

CRML, how does a shower set off a fire alarm?

[Broomjockey]

CRML, how does a shower set off a fire alarm?

I'd bet "hot water shower" and "finiky alarms that sense heat."

As for meandering out of a building on fire, at my first theatre we were shown a fire safety video of a fire at an English Football match where a fire broke out in the stands, and the entire section was burned to the ground in less than 15 minutes, meaning getting out you had a lot less time. Personally, any building I'm in that has a fire alarm go off, I treat it as real unless warned ahead of time that it's a drill, and I try to be out of the building in 5 minutes or less. And I don't stand right next to the building like so many people around here love to do. It's like Boozy said, they don't seem to care. "Gee, the building's on fire. I wanna be able to get in first ahead of everyone else, so I'll stand as close as I can get."

[Lingering Grin]

Anyone else wonder why she had her kids with her in a bar? ...

Well it's connected to the hotel, so they might be a little relaxed with families and all that. Maybe have a small arcade area, or at the very least Burgers and Fries?

Some of the best finger-type food is at bars (and kids love finger-food)... The bar me and my friends used to go to had the BEST chicken-fingers in town.

[rerant]

This thread is all too fitting, since there have been so many fires here in the last couple of months.
Most notebly the loss of a very historic (and my personal favourite area) part of the city.
I was across the street two and three days after the fire, as my birthday was planned at the bar directly across the street from where the blaze hit.
What's left is nothing more than a pile of rubble.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about here are some pictures:
http://www.blogto.com/city/2008/02/6...ueen_bathurst/

[Broomjockey]

Well it's connected to the hotel, so they might be a little relaxed with families and all that. Maybe have a small arcade area, or at the very least Burgers and Fries?

Actually, it's not connected to the hotel, technically, as in previous threads, CRML has had to tell people they're seperate from the hotel, and don't do room service, and other such things. Also, the business appears to have a licence that allows children until something like 6:00 pm.

[Kali]

I would have thought that in the event of an alarm, evacuation of a bar/restauarant was mandatory.

The alarm wasn't at the bar, it was at the hotel next to the bar.

[customersruinmylife]

We are seperated from the hotel by a very small car park. The hotel curves around this car park and about three floors of it are above the bar. (I'm crap at explaining things like this), so if there was a fire in the hotel it could spread to the bar very easily, hence the fire alarms being connected and I explain the hotel as being "upstairs"

Its unbelieveable the amount of people who think we are the hotel, even though we are seperated and have large neon signs. It's kinda nice at times though, because it means that sometimes when people complain, they write to the hotel and not us