Fe-y

[threemonkeys]

We just had a fire alarm at work - just a drill. But one of the sirens is really loud - really really loud. Much louder than it needs to be as there are plenty of other sirens around and well beyond the pain threshold - my ears are still ringing. It is in a stairwell that funnels everybody to the designated meeting area, so you cant miss it. People were holding their hands over their ears to block the noise which in a crowded stairwell can't help but increase the chances of an accident because of people not holding onto handrails.

"When safety becomes dangerous" - sounds like the title for a TV show. I don't think irony is a big selling point in shows like that though.

Comments

[lobelet.livejournal.com]

Our building manager appears to be particularly dumb and incompetent. Another ongoing problem we've had is that the emergency lighting in the stairwell didn't work, which meant that if a real fire or earthquake took out the actual power system everybody would have to stumble downstairs in the dark. Imagine the chaos, not to mention the danger!!

That one took months to fix -- every so often we'd get a memo warning us that the power was going off at 6.00pm (they were careful to do it outside office hours) so that the emergency lighting could be tested. And every memo promised us that this would be the last test 'cos it really was fixed this time. Honest!

And then a couple of weeks later they'd do it all again. I lost count of the number of times they went through this loop.

They've been very quiet of late, so I assume it's fixed, but I wouldn't take any bets on it.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Another former workplace...
There was a power cut one evening. A few of the guys were working late and discovered that there wasn't any lighting in the stairwell nor torches. Showing their initiative, they grabbed whatever laptops where around and used the screen backlighting to guide their way. It may not be much light, but way better than pitch black.

But at least the company responded quickly - the emergency lighting was installed and working by the end of the week.