I was once forced to evacuate a college residence hall during my shower. I was wearing a bathrobe, fortunately. It was October, so the weather wasn’t that cold, but they eventually corralled us into the dining area of a neighboring residence hall while they checked out the building. If there is a large building nearby, perhaps they would send everyone over there for shelter.
I have posted this before, but I had some details wrong (I said it was a fire drill, but it was actually a case where the high school chem lab had blown up).
My son and his entire swimming class had just gotten out of the pool and were heading for the showers when the alarm went off. They were allowed about 10 seconds to grab what they could–shoes, sweatshirts, etc.–before going outside and following procedures. It was really cold, under 20 degrees F, and spitting snow. Of course they all had wet hair.
At the time, they all thought–including the PE teacher–that it was just a drill, but the rule is that you go, even if it’s just a drill. In fact it took the fire dept. awhile to make sure all chemicals, etc. had been contained, and eventually the kids were dismissed for the day. They did let some of the back inside, depending on where their lockers were (i.e., not close to the chemistry room). By the time they went back inside some of the kids had frozen hair! They were in better shape than a couple of people in the chem lab, though. (One girl, a senior, had an eye injury that prevented her from reading for six weeks, a hard thing to deal with when you’re a college-bound senior. A few in the class were treated for smoke inhalation. The chemistry teacher lost part of his hand, and his job.)
We were discussing this in our family about a year ago, when my youngest got sent outside without his coat, three times, in the worst weather we had all year. Only in his case it WAS just a drill. Or a malfunction. Or three malfunctions. But at least he hadn’t just gotten out of the pool.
Personally I’d rather stay inside and get roasted.
When I was in high school my P.E. class had just hopped into the pool when there was a short announcement over the PA, and the teacher called us all out, told us to go back to the locker rooms and that we had one minute to throw our clothes over our wet suits and head outside because there was a bomb threat. In January, in Michigan. That we found out later he’d known was probably coming because the announcement was a code word that had apparently been set that morning. We huddled together with our damp towels spread out to block the wind and looked around at the other students who’d been allowed to go back to their lockers and grab their coats first. It couldn’t have taken more than 15 minutes before we got the all clear, but it sure seemed longer.
It was piss-poor planning on a lot of people’s parts in retrospect - if it was a credible bomb threat when the phone call came in that morning, why did they let students in the building in the first place instead of waiting till 2nd hour to evacuate? And why, if it was suddenly important to evacuate, would you allow students to go back to their lockers, located all over the building? And dangit, why did our gym teacher make us get in the pool instead of changing plans for that day, knowing we might have to go outside soaking wet in 20 degree weather?
This was 1988, before Columbine and the handful of other school shootings drove security concerns to the forefront. The whole incident was shrugged off, but if it happened nowadays I suspect there’d be at least a few screaming parents.
If it was a real fire, you’d have plenty of heat. Just don’t get too close.
No names, no pack drill. Seriously. The fire wardens check that the buildings are clear, but that is it. I wouldn’t have gone if they were checking people off.
And it was not a drill, but it wasn’t a fire, either. Some building works triggered the smoke alarms 3 or four times over the course of a few days. We got really fed up.
Si
I showed my wife this.
She says “cite…”
:smack:
Si
True. They also have body fat percentages higher than adults, which allows them to cope with higher heat loss.
The guy who told me was a fire safety instructor and retired senior fireman. The incident was related during my fire warden training course.
It’s January in Minnesota and I often take my toddler to the community center to go swimming. What you describe is exactly what I would do in an actual fire or an alarm. Stand near the exit until I feel we are actually in danger.
Wouldn’t you have to worry about frostbite as well?
Really? I thought fat in humans was to store energy, not to hold in heat. It was my understanding that a muscular person can maintain body heat better than a fat person, due to lower circulation in fat, and the ability to flex the muscles (shiver). Isn’t blubber a different type of fat than that in humans?
It IS to store energy-but it also happens to hold heat at the same time.
Employers aren’t legally required to have a roll call procedure? They do a roll call during each and every fire drill where I work, and there are a few hundred people in the building most of the time. When we were in another building (it used to be a mill building and housed dozens of businesses) there really was a relatively minor fire a few years back, and all the other businesses were taking roll then too, so I figured everyone must need to.
My point is that muscle can actually generate heat, while fat cannot.
I am a fire warden for my floor in an office tower - we are required to check each office (and close the door to show it’s been done) and check the bathrooms, then call down to security to indicate the floor is clear before heading down the stairs ourselves.
No one has any way of knowing where anyone is on any given day - all you can check is that there’s no one left on the floor.
How do they keep track of who’s coming and going? Do you sign in/out, use a badge reader, etc? When there is a fire alarm do they get a real time log of who’s supposedly on the premises?