Annual Fire Drill

[rusty_armour]

We just had our annual fire drill at work, and I got caught with my pants down. Literally. I was in the washroom when the alarm went off, so I couldn’t grab my fluorescent orange fire warden vest or check my area to make sure that people were evacuating. Instead I stood near the fire exit and tried to watch for people from online editorial, earning comments like: “Hey, aren’t you supposed to have a neon vest or something?” Aaaaarrrrrgggghhhh! I should have paid attention to Murphy’s Law. If there’s a fire drill scheduled then don’t go to the little girl’s room until after it’s over. *Groans* Ah, man! This ranks right up there with killing my CPR dummy during the first aid course because I remembered to do everything except call 911!

Oh, well. At least no one died this time. As far as I know, everyone got out of the building safely, which is a minor miracle considering how long it took us to get down the stairs. Okay, I can understand people grabbing their jackets, but do you really need to bring your coffee too? Hmm...I'm in a life or death situation. Would I rather burn to death or go through caffeine withdrawal. Oh, gee, I don't know. Can I have a few minutes to think about it? Yeah, if there's ever a real fire, we're all going to die.

Comments

[rusty-armour.livejournal.com]

Okay, my building looks really good in comparison! I can't believe that people actually hid under their desks to avoid going down the stairs. Yikes! Well, it was before 9/11. I wonder if people would still do that now. I guess they might if they knew it was just a drill. Fortunately, my building only has 8 floors. It was a much different story when I was still working at First Canadian Place.

You're probably right about what would happen in the event of a real fire. Well, the purpose of a drill (as I understand it) is to make sure that people are familiar with the location of the fire exits and at least some basic procedures.