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We just had a fire drill. My tea is cold (lukewarm, anyhow).
I was in the bathroom when the alarm sounded. It's extremely muffled in there, and I heard the alarm itself and a very faint "May I have your attention" but nothing after that. The only reason I knew what to do is that I saw everyone else gathering next to the doors to the elevators.
The man running the drill went through his speech, including that we should know where all the exit stairs are. He didn't tell us where they are, except that there are four on this side of the elevators and two on the other, and that we should note their locations when we walk around the floor. Given the number of exit signs, I'm guessing it's two stairways per exit door, as in the last skyscraper I worked in. He did not introduce or name our fire warden.
When he asked for questions, I pointed out that I'd barely been able to hear the alarm. The answer was "Don't shoot the messenger. The law does not require speakers in the bathrooms, only strobes." [The strobes aren't activated during a drill, which frankly I'm glad of.] Why the law doesn't require that--and why the building doesn't have them anyway, as the last place I worked does--he didn't say, and probably doesn't know. In a real emergency, I hope the searchers would have come into the bathrooms and notified people of the alarm.
At 1515 Broadway, the warden and searchers would have been introduced, and would have--as part of the drill--actually searched the bathrooms. On the other hand, at 1515 they announced fire drills days in advance and with signs in the lobby that morning, which doesn't strike me as good practice.
Addendum: I now have a printed copy of the fire safety plan tacked to my cubicle wall. I have it because I wanted ice water, and there was a small pile of them in the galley with a note saying to take one if you needed it. It doesn't name our fire warden--and if it did, that information might well be out of date, given that it says it was printed in May 2002--but it does show the exits and even designate our primary and alterante emergency meeting locations, in case we have to evacuate the building. I was right about the stairways being paired.
I was in the bathroom when the alarm sounded. It's extremely muffled in there, and I heard the alarm itself and a very faint "May I have your attention" but nothing after that. The only reason I knew what to do is that I saw everyone else gathering next to the doors to the elevators.
The man running the drill went through his speech, including that we should know where all the exit stairs are. He didn't tell us where they are, except that there are four on this side of the elevators and two on the other, and that we should note their locations when we walk around the floor. Given the number of exit signs, I'm guessing it's two stairways per exit door, as in the last skyscraper I worked in. He did not introduce or name our fire warden.
When he asked for questions, I pointed out that I'd barely been able to hear the alarm. The answer was "Don't shoot the messenger. The law does not require speakers in the bathrooms, only strobes." [The strobes aren't activated during a drill, which frankly I'm glad of.] Why the law doesn't require that--and why the building doesn't have them anyway, as the last place I worked does--he didn't say, and probably doesn't know. In a real emergency, I hope the searchers would have come into the bathrooms and notified people of the alarm.
At 1515 Broadway, the warden and searchers would have been introduced, and would have--as part of the drill--actually searched the bathrooms. On the other hand, at 1515 they announced fire drills days in advance and with signs in the lobby that morning, which doesn't strike me as good practice.
Addendum: I now have a printed copy of the fire safety plan tacked to my cubicle wall. I have it because I wanted ice water, and there was a small pile of them in the galley with a note saying to take one if you needed it. It doesn't name our fire warden--and if it did, that information might well be out of date, given that it says it was printed in May 2002--but it does show the exits and even designate our primary and alterante emergency meeting locations, in case we have to evacuate the building. I was right about the stairways being paired.
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