There is an emergency in the building.
So I was sitting in Stats the other day. As usual, I was trying very hard to focus, but I was finding it exceptionally difficult to do so. Thankfully, there were about 10 minutes left in the class when a strange series of intermittent beeps started coming from outside the class. The instructor, who is hard to hear anyway, started complaining about all the racket going on in the corridor, so she goes over and shuts the door to muffle the noise, and continues the lecture.
Then the sprinklers in the class start flashing. Bewildered, the prof figures out that something is amiss and yanks open the door, where she sees every other student on the floor pouring out of their classes and heading towards the exits. Then the alarm volume suddenly increases exponentially. She says something along the lines of, "Oh, I guess it's the fire alarm," and summarily dissmisses the class.
This was followed by the slowest and most disorganized emergency exit I have ever seen. Most people looked amused, annoyed, or bewildered.
It was worth it, though. After a while, over the racket of the alarm, we got a
James Earl Jones-esque recording intoning, "There is an EMERGENCY in the building. Please EVACUATE the Central Academic Building." I guess they figured the deafening alarm was not enough of a signal.
I got a kick out it.
Incidentally, this was a great choice for a practice evacuation. I mean, it's seven stories tall, has a large cafeteria, dozens of classrooms and offices, houses the entire math and stats department, and is attached to the large Chemistry building as well as the massive Cameron library, which were also were "evacuated". I hope an orderly move towards the exits was not expected, because nothing of the kind occured.
Then the sprinklers in the class start flashing. Bewildered, the prof figures out that something is amiss and yanks open the door, where she sees every other student on the floor pouring out of their classes and heading towards the exits. Then the alarm volume suddenly increases exponentially. She says something along the lines of, "Oh, I guess it's the fire alarm," and summarily dissmisses the class.
This was followed by the slowest and most disorganized emergency exit I have ever seen. Most people looked amused, annoyed, or bewildered.
It was worth it, though. After a while, over the racket of the alarm, we got a
James Earl Jones-esque recording intoning, "There is an EMERGENCY in the building. Please EVACUATE the Central Academic Building." I guess they figured the deafening alarm was not enough of a signal.
I got a kick out it.
Incidentally, this was a great choice for a practice evacuation. I mean, it's seven stories tall, has a large cafeteria, dozens of classrooms and offices, houses the entire math and stats department, and is attached to the large Chemistry building as well as the massive Cameron library, which were also were "evacuated". I hope an orderly move towards the exits was not expected, because nothing of the kind occured.
posted by Sam F at 10:22 PM
3 Comments:
When we did the test evacuation in Cameron, it was ultra slow too -- all that construction on the first floor meant that I probably would have been burned up by the time I got out of the building.
I always know it is just a drill and not a fire in my school because there's Jimmy walking around with a huge smile.
Just as I arrived at the library today, the bells started and a huge stream of people poured out to meet me. GRRRRR!! Sometimes my timing really sucks.
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