"The store, the store, the store is on fire..."

[reirei]

Some one set some racks of clothes on FIRE in my store today. I shit you not. SET THEM ON FIRE.

There was smoke and filling the place and people would NOT LEAVE!!! There were actually people who refused to leave until they were checked out.

Holy cow.

Meanwhile I am in the back of the store making my escape with some friends through the fire exits. Apparenly they are supposed to have a five second delay bofore they open to slow down shoplifters.

Me: *Pushes on handle and a loud alarm goes off*
Manager behind me: It will open in five seconds so stand by it and hold it open.
five seconds later.... Door does not open
twenty seconds later... Door still has not opened. We begin to seriously consider going out through the bay doors when it finally opens.
Me: Sir, you gotta get those people to recalobrate these things.

Out side we meet up with co-workers as customers are getting out like bats out of hell as the fire trucks arrive.

My friends and I begin to sing as we go to the car:

"The store, the store, the store is on fire!
We don't need no water let the mother f_cker burn,
Burn mother f_cker burn.."

There were six fire trucks and three police cars parked in front of the store. Wouldn't you notice that going in? Would you then park your car and try to go into the store in question?

DOZENS of people did just that. One person walked right past the fire truck parked infront of one of the doors, over the fire hoses and tried to get inside only to be stopped, much to her displeasure, by a fireman.

People were actually ARGUING with the cops and firemen at the doors. And others were lining up at the side doors on the entrance ways to get it. One after another trying to get into a door that was LOCKED!!

There was this one lady who stood at the cross walk to one of the entrances and stared at the cop car and police tape for about five minutes before walking across and trying to go inside.

So they finally clean it all up and air the place out, took three hours.

We open the store back up and the pharmacy is opened back up for it's final two hours, even though a lot of the floor associates are wearing dust masks because of the lingering smell.

We in the pharmacy then had to deal with two hours of people calling to yell at us for the store and pharmacy being closed for three hours.

Typical call:

Reirei: Thank you for calling blank Pharmacy this is Reirei how may I help you?
CS: When do you close?
Reirei: We close at nine sir.
CS: Then why the hell were you closed earlier??? I wanted to bring my prescription in!
Reirei: I am very sorry sir, but the store had a fire so we all had to evacuate and close the store.
CS: If the store had a fire, why did you close the pharmacy??
Reirei:

The best part of all this is the fact that the fire investigators had taped and blocked off the area of the store the fire happened in. But people would not keep out!!! I guess they really needed a t-shirt badly.

I will tell more fire stories from my fellow associates in the next coming days.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

The same thing happened in my store years ago, before I started there.

Also years ago (I remember the exact date--July 4, 1987) there was a fire in the strip mall attached to the store, a pretty bad one that destroyed about half the mall. There was an electrical problem in the ceiling, and no fire breaks in the ceiling, so it spread pretty quickly.

Then, as now with your store, people were reluctant to leave when ordered to evacuate. My mom was working there when it happened and dealt with some of those people. She wasn't even allowed to grab her purse before leaving.

As for the store itself, it wasn't damaged. There was a fire door between the mall and the store. Just a lot of stuff ruined by a smoke smell.

Hope nobody was hurt.

[Dave1982]

Seriously, if there was ever a fire at my store, and people refused to leave until they were checked out, I'd tell them they were free to stay and burn to death. But I'll be damned if you're gonna walk out of here without paying for that stuff. Leave it.

[fireheart]

I hope the store is OK.

Who the heck sets clothes on fire? A pyromaniac with a death wish?

[sarasquirrel]

last September our power went out, like 3pm. and then it smelled like something was burning. we(I) pulled the fire alarm and had to explain to customers, esp at pharmacy, they had to get out. no power= registers not working.

power was out for 3 hours. we stayed outside due to the nasty smell inside (nothing burned, it was a power surge) and we had to tell each customer that pulled up that we were closed due to an outage.

surprisingly most took it fine and went to the nearby 24 hr store. but i remember one woman, asked if we were open. we say no, she asks again, we say no were closed, so she pulls into a space anyway and we tell her AGAIN we are closed, i think she finally understood

[tropicsgoddess]

I wonder if they'll find out who started the fire. I just can't believe how dumb some people would be not to leave when there's a freakin' fire in the store! To hell with getting my stuff checked out, I'll haul ass!

[Elspeth]

Glad you guys got out ok

Reminds me when I worked at the local community college. Had a gas leak and they evacuted the buildings. Some people would not leave. I had to threaten turning off their computers before some of them would go.

After our last earthquake up here, my Hubby still worked at the college and he had to go around to close up the labs. Some people had put the monitors back up on the tables and keep right on working. With the ceiling coming down around them.

[reirei]

The same thing happened in my store years ago, before I started there.

Also years ago (I remember the exact date--July 4, 1987) there was a fire in the strip mall attached to the store, a pretty bad one that destroyed about half the mall. There was an electrical problem in the ceiling, and no fire breaks in the ceiling, so it spread pretty quickly.

Then, as now with your store, people were reluctant to leave when ordered to evacuate. My mom was working there when it happened and dealt with some of those people. She wasn't even allowed to grab her purse before leaving.

As for the store itself, it wasn't damaged. There was a fire door between the mall and the store. Just a lot of stuff ruined by a smoke smell.

Hope nobody was hurt.

Despite the customer's best efforts no one was hurt, thank God.

I hope the store is OK.

Who the heck sets clothes on fire? A pyromaniac with a death wish?

Apparently, it was supposed to be a diversion so his friend could steal one of the big lcd tv's.

last September our power went out, like 3pm. and then it smelled like something was burning. we(I) pulled the fire alarm and had to explain to customers, esp at pharmacy, they had to get out. no power= registers not working.

power was out for 3 hours. we stayed outside due to the nasty smell inside (nothing burned, it was a power surge) and we had to tell each customer that pulled up that we were closed due to an outage.

surprisingly most took it fine and went to the nearby 24 hr store. but i remember one woman, asked if we were open. we say no, she asks again, we say no were closed, so she pulls into a space anyway and we tell her AGAIN we are closed, i think she finally understood

A co-worker i was talking to via IM told me about this middle aged lady that parked her car right up on the group of associates she was with and just stared at them for about ten minutes before she left. He has no idea what she could have possibly wanted.

I wonder if they'll find out who started the fire. I just can't believe how dumb some people would be not to leave when there's a freakin' fire in the store! To hell with getting my stuff checked out, I'll haul ass!

You and me both.

[depechemodefan]

I am just flabbergasted. There's a fire and people won't leave? I see a fire, I will be the first one out the door. Granted, if I was on the 4th floor, where our offices, the childrens room and the teen room is also, I'll check with the childrens room. Teenagers can get their own ass into gear.

One time, in 2004, this guy ran his car into the library. He was from Egypt and was studying here in Houston. He wanted to go back home so he figured he would get deported if he does something like that. At the time, no one knew his reasoning so most people were thinking "AHHH!!!! Guy with car bomb!" So HPD shows up (heck, the mayor showed up too) and finally an hour latter, the librarian in charge says everyone goes home. Some dipshit who was always causing trouble for us librarians would not leave. Librarians were turning off the computer he was on and he kept on turning it back on. He got permabanned

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I could be wrong, but I think that time delay on the emergency exit could be a fire code violation. If there were a fast moving fire in the building, those extra seconds could be CRITICAL.

[mattm04]

Once someone hit a sprinkle in the main freezer, yes it eventually creates a giant ice rink and some cool icicles. It also triggers a flow switch which sets off the fire alarm. And yes, those red things all over the store that say "FIRE" on them and making the loud noise with the flashing lights means FIRE, get out. Remember Elementary school.

Well, most customers got the hint quickly but a few wouldn't leave. They insisted that they were paying for their groceries despite the total lack of cashiers. One even said they would stand at a register until a cashier arrived. That SC was removed by Police and got chewed out by a few FF's. The MOD stood just inside the entrance and watched her until the cops arrived.

I got to guard one of the entrances until the Police and Fire arrived. Each entrance has a horn/strobe by it which was going off yet SC still tried to get by. A fire truck, FD SUV and Police car by one entrance with "FIRE LINE - DO NOT CROSS" tape strung up doesn't' stop SC's. Though the occasional "Hey, get the f**k out of here or you will be arrested" from officials to SC's was nice to hear.

[mattm04]

I could be wrong, but I think that time delay on the emergency exit could be a fire code violation. If there were a fast moving fire in the building, those extra seconds could be CRITICAL.

I know Airports have timed release doors. Imagine the level of suck in evacuating a airport terminal and the re-screening everyone, etc. *shudder* It may depend on the building (sprinklers, construction, etc)

[kdruboen]

Gypsies

Setting clothing on fire is a favorite distraction technique used by gypsies when they pull a robbery of a department store. Back in the 80's, when I was a lowly retail slave, we were warned of when to expect the gypsy travellers to be in our region. They would use hand signals to coordinate their movement and placement in the store. They'd place a few near the office "Cash cage", and at each register in the store. When everyone was in place, the fire would be set, and as employees were distracted, the gypsies would then rob the registers and try to get into the office cash room and get what they could. In addition to whatever cash they could grab, they'd also get out with as much merchandise as they could. I'm sure they're still out there doing this same scam.

[powerboy]

I could be wrong, but I think that time delay on the emergency exit could be a fire code violation. If there were a fast moving fire in the building, those extra seconds could be CRITICAL.

That is what I am thinking also.

[StanFlouride]

I could be wrong, but I think that time delay on the emergency exit could be a fire code violation. If there were a fast moving fire in the building, those extra seconds could be CRITICAL.

ABSO-F--KING-LUTELY!!! I think an anonymous report to the local Fire Marshall is definitely in order.