First fire drill

Something triggered the alarm on 33rd floor, so a few floors above and below had to evacuate 5 floors below.

That was my first one here.

A little flashback of the at least once a week fire alarm at Fluor Tower my freshman year in college. Our building had just been renovated. The alarm was the “pull here” kind. Not “break glass” kind, and situated right by the fire stairs.

So what did people do? Ran down the hall, pulled the alarm, and exited the building. We had to wake up in the middle of the night at the oddest hours many many many times during the year. We’d lay out the robe/sweater with our keys each night. Eventually, we brought down our wallets and drove off to Del Taco for 3 a.m. snacks instead of waiting around in the cold.

Our defiant moment came during finals when half of the building decided to stay in bed instead. There was a false alarm around midnight when most people were still up cramming. But the second one at 3:30 a.m., half of the building decided not to get out of bed for it. Of course, the DPS (Department of Public Safety) noticed the usually small crowd gathering downstairs, so they checked all the rooms.

I was fortunate to be so small, and had the top bunk. I curled up under cover, leaning against the wall. I had my head toward the door. As my headboard, I had a row of stuffed animals. A DPS officer came into my room. But I was undetected.

My suitemates weren’t so lucky. Those people who didn’t come down were supposed to be fined, but so many people brought up all the false alarm through out the year that no one had done anything about it despite the complaints. So they ended up having to write an apology letter or something like that instead.

2 Comments

  1. Amazing Amy   •  

    We used to hide in the shower stalls in Fluor when that happened. I swear it was at least once a week!

  2. Rude Cactus   •  

    33rd floor? We have few high rises around here. I think living that high would freak me out.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.