Quote:
Originally posted by pinkyphimu
...last year, i was flying out of logan airport and the fire alarm started going off. NO ONE even stopped what they were doing. the people who worked there just went along with what they were doing. sadly, i didn't leave either. i was sitting there thinking that if i were a child, i would have known that i needed to leave and i would have walked out. and just a few weeks ago, i was at a restaurant with some friends when the fire alarm went off. again, no one even missed a beat with their conversations. the manager came out and told us not to worry that it was a small fire in the kitchen that had been put out, but that the fire dept was on its way. he told us to stay where we were and that it was no big deal. sadly, again, no one moved. when the fire dept arrived, they were quite unhappy and the restaurant was fined!!!!! a little while later, the alarm went off again, and the manager asked us to leave.
i have almost always worked in places that have had fire escape plans and how as staff, we needed to get patrons out. i think that more businesses need to come up with plans and train their staff. i also think as patrons, we need to pay more attention to those things.
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I've got a feeling that one of the recommendations brought up after this fire's investigation it may become mandatory for staff and security personnel to become familiar with an evacuation plan and to usher people out of the buildings through designated emergency exits. Posting a sign just ain't gonna do it any more.
Having been in the Air Force, one of the first things that's drummed into a person is to react to ALL alarms quickly and without hesitation, save for an all-too-brief "What the f*ck?!?" moment that seems to go in slow motion before your brain engages into high gear.
Whether it's a fire alarm or the klaxon that once sent SAC alert crews running for their planes, or even the mention of "Alarm Red" (air raid/chem attack in progress), every alarm was taken seriously. It took me a LONG time to stop reacting to
The William Tell Overture (the
Lone Ranger theme) like it was an an alarm after I became a civilian. (It was played loudly on the base's "GIANT VOICE" (no kidding, that was its name!) public address system as the base's general recall signal. Usually followed by a monotonous voice repeating "base recall, base recall... all personnel report to your duty sections immediately!")
I remember one other time back when I was in college at OU and the tornado warning sirens went off. What did most people do (including myself) at the time? Run out to the quad and watch the roiling thunderclouds in the distance for a glimpse of a funnel cloud (A tornado had touched down in the western portion of Norman -- at the time it wasn't as heavily populated as it is today). Needless to say, the op-ed pages in the university paper the following day were screaming bloody murder over the stupidity of our actions that night. We may have gotten lucky, but don't push it! And we were reminded about what to do in case of a tornado by our RA.