Linguistically Speaking: Fire Drills

After having taught for many years, the art of fire drills and being conditioned to bells (thanks Pavlov) is engrained in my very being. I've had to adjust slightly, but it is still there. I bring this up because the British take health and safety very seriously. It is a government dept. in fact. So for example the light switch for the bathroom is always on the outside of the door. There are no electrical plugs in the bathroom either. The light has to be a certain distance from the shower as well. All of the electrical outlets have an on/off switch on them, so when you plug in something you have to turn on the outlet as well. This is all in accordance with Health and Safety.

So because I live in the halls of residence the rules are very strict. When cooking you must open the window and keep the kitchen door shut. All of the doors are fire doors and are labeled as such. These are not allowed to be propped open. Windows in the bedroom should be opened regularly so as to keep the mold down. They also came and installed locks on all of the windows so that you can't open them from the side, they only open about 4 inches at the top, so that you sorta get a hint of a breeze through them, but you can't do something stupid. No open flames or fairy lights allowed in the bedrooms, or hot plates for cooking. This is understandable since most of the 1100 people living in my halls are between the ages of 18 - 25, and this is their first time away from home.

Even with all of the precautions, the fire alarms go off on a regular basis. Daily, or pretty close, you hear the fire alarm sound in one of the three buildings somewhere. What you don't want is for it to go off in your flat or your room. When it does you wait to see if it will stop, when it doesn't then you vacate. I've only had to vacate twice. The first time was a planned drill back in about October. I was working and focused and I heard it start on another floor. Then it sounded in my room. Pretty sure I scraped myself off of the ceiling, put on my shoes and coat and headed out. I joined the rank and file in the stairwell and we wound down 12 flights of stairs out through the the courtyard down the street and to a car park halfway down the block. Here we were herded in like cattle and waited for instructions.
If it had been the states I think they would have started the speech with "this is only a drill, if it had been an actual emergency...." instead they droned on about why and where and eventually they let us go back to our flats... up the 12 flights of stairs as cattle herded back in.

Several times they have been testing the system and the alarm goes off in my room, I wait the allotted 20 secs and it stops and I go on about my business. One day the alarm sounded in Block C and and went on for quite a while. The fire truck actually showed up once, though, as far as I could tell, there wasn't a fire to put out, but they put someone on a stretcher... I've watched students file out in various attire as either they had just showered, or gone to bed, or gotten up... I've listened to it sounding in other parts of my building and can hear doors shutting at regular intervals, haven't figured out quite what that is all about yet.

So when I heard the all too familiar two tone alarm last night I continued on with my work. Within a couple of minutes however it sounded in my room. After jumping out of my skin, I waited...... sigh, not going to shut off. So I pulled on my shoes, grabbed my coat and key and went out. The fire door halfway down the flat hall had closed, no sign of any of my flatmates, I went out the flat door and a guy was standing in the doorway of the flat across the hall. He looks at me and asks if I was going down. Yes, of course I was. He hadn't decided.... I turned and opened the door to the stairwell to find everyone flooding out of the building. This time though we congregated in the courtyard. It was raining.... I looked up and could see one of my flatmates in our kitchen, I guess she decided it wasn't important....
I couldn't really hear what the residence team gal was saying, something about the rain and not sending us down the street, sorry for the inconvenience and they would have us back in the building shortly. I decided it was an unplanned entire building evacuation.

It brought back memories of teaching high school. Sometimes the alarm went off and they would tell us to ignore it. Sometimes we went out and then later they said it will count for one of the planned ones. When the alarms sounded at school and we were not advised of a drill, I always took them seriously. In the years of working at the high school we had three lock down emergencies where we turned out the lights, locked the doors and stuffed 40 students in the farthest corner of the room and tried not to breathe.... Two of those were because of threats nearby to the school. However whenever I hear a fire alarm, unplanned, my thoughts go back to the day of the bomb threat at the school. It was before classes, the alarm sounded, no one said ignore it so we vacated. 4 hours later after the bomb squad and the dogs had combed through the school, we were allowed back in.

Am I going down? Yes. I won't question. I won't stay in. It might be an inconvenience and as much as sometimes the rules seem a bit over the top, in a real emergency it's good that they exist. So I put up with trying to do my hair with the mirror in my wardrobe, opening my window daily, cooking with the noisy fan and kitchen door closed. I'll switch on my outlets and turn them back off again when not in use. I'll leave when the alarm sounds in my room. Past experience has told me it is important. As much as we grumble about regulations, the government protecting us from ourselves etc, honestly it is good to know that someone cares and that there is a plan in place. you never know when it won't be a drill.