work anecdote number two
As I was crossing the street to come into work this morning, we were stopped in the crosswalk by a racing fire engine blaring its horn and lights. They turned into the hospital and I ended up walking in next to two fully geared up firemen carrying hoses. They weren’t running or anything. I guess I was confused or not fully awake or something but they got on the elevator so I asked if I could ride with them and they didn’t say anything so I did. They were going to 5, and I hesitantly pushed 3. They looked at me like “really? you are going to slow us down getting to our fire.” The thought that they were maybe actually going to a fire crossed my mind in the split-second as I was pushing the button but it was too late. What if I had delayed them and then the whole hospital burned down? But then I thought about how they weren’t really hurrying and how doesn’t it say “IN CASE OF FIRE USE STAIRS” and so on and so forth? As I got off on the third floor, I could hear the fire alarm sounding up above. Whoopsie.
A few minutes later the lady came on the overhead and said “we have an all-clear on the code red (fire) activation on 5 West.”
So I guess basically, someone had pulled the fire alarm but there was no actual fire. I’m not sure if I should be upset at how lazily the firemen were going to check on this or if I should blame the fact that we have tests of the fire system so often that nobody, not even professional firemen take a real alarm seriously.
If there ever is a real fire, we are all in trouble.
