Fire evacuation exercise

We had a fire alarm evacuation exercise this morning. I sent an email to everybody on Friday letting them know the time and date of the evacuation so that they could plan calls or meetings around it. I thought that that was a good idea as it would help them to prepare.

At 10:30 this morning the exodus began. A slow but steady trickle of people gathered their coats, hats, gloves and scarves, jumped into the lift and ‘popped out for a coffee’. By the time the actual drill happened at 11:00 the only people left on the floor were my good self and the fire wardens. Everybody else had taken the lift and avoided the wait in the freezing cold. Being on reception I couldn't really take advantage of the warm coffee shop across the road, instead I had to take the 13 flights of stairs and brave the bitter wind while I waited, on my own, to be counted.

On the way back up to the office the queues for the lifts were huge. They always are after this sort of thing. Everyone rushing to be the first back to their desks, even though they were probably the first ones to leave them also. I’m not very good in lifts at the best of times, and on occasions like these they tend to be hugely over filled and the journey to my floor takes ages because it stops at every floor to let a lone person out. Even though it's super busy, people still get in the lift to go to the first floor… Why?

Anyway, after being semi-challenged to take the stairs up, rather than the lift, I did.

And I wish I hadn’t.

Phewee, I was feeling the burn by the time I reached the top that’s for sure!

Next time – if I am still here when there’s a next time of course, I’m not going to tell anyone that there is an evacuation drill about to happen. They can brave the stairs and the cold with me. It’s only fair. In a 'real life' situation they wouldn’t have had a warning of an impending fire after all!

I don't really know why I am moaning about the fire drill, by 11:00 I was actually incredibly glad for a break from doing nothing at my desk - even if that break was almost-heart-attack-inducing stair climbing!