Fire Alarm Suck

[depechemodefan]

In any case, it is drilled into us to proceed directly to our "safe site" approximately 2 city blocks away. Do not stop for a coffee, do not collect $100 and especially DO NOT STOP FOR ICE CREAM OR POP distributed by our building management along the way as a thank you for participating in the drill. Go. Right. There.

It can't be made any plainer. And there is always a follow-up email from HR regarding this particular point. Always!

So - at the last drill, we're at our safe place and attendance is being taken. We are not allowed to disperse until we're all accounted for - team leaders are supposed to know who's called in sick, who's at a meeting out of the office, etc.

Waiting, waiting, waiting... Hot and thirsty and piles of work on the desk not getting smaller.

Finally, we get the go ahead to return to the office. By our Head of HR. Lickin' away at a frozen treat clearly labelled "Courtesy of Building Management"! This person was the last one to get to the safe place.

Numerous emails were sent to our safety team about that one. This person is notorious for the do as I say, not as I do, but dammit this one took the cake. It was sweltering out that day and we were all thirsty and hot from having to walk all those flights of stairs!

Arghhh!
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One month closer to retirement (unless EQ hires me at her hotel!)

why can't BM give treats after everyone got inside? Or at the safe place?

All this talk about people not leaving a building because they don't believe it's a real emergency? Reminds me of the Titanic (the real history, not movies). At first people wouldn't get on the life boats because it's an inconvienence (though I think also the officers really didn't think it was an emergency, since they thought the ship would stay afloat). Sucks to be you floating in the Atlantic at night in April.

[Difdi]

When I'm at work, I'll happily participate in fire drills; Hourly pay is hourly pay.

On the other hand, when at home in my apartment, I tend to just ignore them. And I've done so everywhere I've ever lived. Why? Because all of them have been relatively small buildings. I have an unusually acute sense of smell (I can describe the odor of carbon monoxide, if that gives you any idea). Every time there has been a real fire, anywhere I've lived, I've smelled it before the smoke detectors did...usually long enough before the detectors that I'm putting away the fire extinguisher just as they go off (side note: HALON is the best stuff on Earth ).

One time, I was sound asleep when one of my roomies set the kitchen stove on fire; I was half asleep as I went down the hall, grabbed an extinguisher on my way, put it out, and was back in bed by the time every fire alarm in the house went berserk (hardwired system too, the fire department was not amused).

[Chromatix]

My mother once "tested" every fire detector in my house - when I had a house and not a flat - by overheating some oil in a frying pan. In *MY* kitchen. Fortunately it was only a small amount of oil, on a gas hob, so it went out quite quickly when I turned it off - and there was nothing above it to catch. But it did send detectable smoke all through the house, very effectively.

So after turning off the gas and observing that the flame was dying quickly, I had to run around with a broom handle pushing the "silence" buttons on each alarm, before the neighbours got paranoid and started making emergency calls.

And I discovered that one of the half-dozen detectors didn't actually work. I forget if that was the one in the bedroom or the computer room. I verified it with a tightly-rolled newspaper, which is easy to make manageable amounts of smoke with by lighting the end and blowing it out. Holding it directly under the faulty detector, it completely failed to go off, but the one in the stairwell outside the room did (eventually).

[TOLady]

why can't BM give treats after everyone got inside? Or at the safe place?

That's the thing - BM stays around for quite a while. They were still there when we got back to the building. We all know that they'll be there. BM knows we're not supposed to get the treats before, so they arrange it so that we can get them on the way back. That's why it was so maddening.

The other companies in the building don't have as strict policies as ours.

[One-Fang]

BM need to learn to not make the treats available at all until after. No table, no staff, no ice blocks, visible or even 'ready to go' until everyone has already left the area.

Hey um, are the BM people not included in the drill, or what?

[TOLady]

BM need to learn to not make the treats available at all until after. No table, no staff, no ice blocks, visible or even 'ready to go' until everyone has already left the area.

Hey um, are the BM people not included in the drill, or what?

That is an excellent idea and one I was going to approach our management team with as soon as I read your post , but unfortunately, although our company takes almost 10 floors of our building, there are still 30+ floors that are taken by other companies and those companies do not have plans in place which require their employees to actually leave the immediate area.

I think it would make sense. Anyone looking out our windows or getting a coffee an hour before the drill would obviously know what was coming! In fact, I think it's such a good idea that I think I will take it to management. There's no reason they can't have the treats available in the lobby (the fire exits don't lead into the lobby) for those entering back into the building after the drill. There would be no traffic, so they could set up their stations very quickly while the building waits for the all-clear by the fire department.

Thanks! Great idea!

[Dreamstalker]

My CO alarm is hardwired, but the smoke detector is not; that seems backwards somehow.

I've also discovered that the hardwired building alarms will turn off by themselves. The twit on the third floor burned something, hallway alarms went off for maybe three seconds and then stopped; I thought building alarms could only be turned off by the fire dept.

[trunks2k]

When I was in college, they'd test the alarm from time to time, but let us know it was gonna happen and told us to ignore it. The alarm would go off for real every other week, often because the steam from showers would set them off. If you were found in the dorm when they came to check during one of the real alarms, they'd fine you.

One night it went off 3 or 4 times at like 2 or 3 AM because some idiots kept pulling the alarm. The RAs ended up telling us "tough luck, you guys have to find somewhere else to sleep tonight. We're not going to allow you back in until 9AM". Supposedly a couple RAs figured out who did it and gave them a deserving punishment (in the physical sense). Unsurprisingly, after that incident the alarm never went off again other than for tests.

[Dreamstalker]

(I can describe the odor of carbon monoxide, if that gives you any idea)

I am officially intrigued by this.