Originally Posted by
DukieInKansas
Fire drills are much easier now that we are on floor 3 of a 3 story building. When we were on the 12th floor of a 15 story building, most of the building had meetings away from the office starting about 30 minutes before the appointed drill time.
Specifying the day and time of the drill should be outlawed. People should really practice the drill and, if you know the time, you can skip it. When we had to evacuate the 15 story building due to a fire*, it wasn't pretty. A person being helped down the stairs was holding their helper's arm so they were side by side. People a flight back were yelling for people to hurry up - I kept waiting for a stampede. They never came around to debrief anyone on this. I thought someone should have come around to discuss what went well and what didn't. I determined that, if I were ever helping someone down the stairs in a fire, I would have them be on the step behind me and lean on my shoulders so that we were single file and others could go around us. It didn't help that the other stairwell was acting like a chimney and was smokey so we were all trying to go down one stairwell. It made me think about people exiting the World Trade Towers. I'm still amazed that so many were able to get out.
* Someone** tossed a cigarette butt in the dumpster in the loading dock area and it started a fire. The smoke then came in the building and the closest stairwell acted like a chimney.
** An idiot!