Fire Drill

Yeah, I was so lucky to chance upon the Fire drill when I was in the office today.

Out of the remaining days of the year that I have not been back in this office, they did not plan to have the fire drill.
This week that I am back in the HQ, the fire drill is scheduled for the entire building and we had to walk down from our office on the 14th floor all the way down to the ground floor.

The best part was; I was actually in the meeting room with another colleague who was briefing me on my new assignment and the Fire Marshall (the appointed person from the Department to assist in this exercise by the building administration in collaboration with the Fire Brigade department) who was running around ushering people out of the building did not notice us even though he passed the meeting room twice!

Then he finally saw us and he laughed, and shooed us out to the emergency exit almost immediately!

I think, if this was a real fire, we could have been burnt to death eh? =P

I couldn't remember when was the last fire drill I participated in; but it must have been very long.

This is one of those usual practices where you hear the emergency/fire alarm that goes off and everyone is still busy checking what do they need to bring along and locking their stuffs and then taking their own sweet time to descend the stairs or move out of the building; chit-chatting or complaining along the way, and then upon reaching the assembly area, you move into your lines and report your name for tracking purpose.
Then, we hang around the assembly area, chatting among ourselves (the best time to network with everyone) while the organizers and the Fire Brigade folks speak to the loud speaker/microphone which sounded like a murmur to the rest of us and we just ignore, continue yakking with people around us.
As the conversations get heated up, everyone tends to hang around even though they announced that the exercise has come to an end.

Well, we are not slacking exactly but there is no way we can cram everyone into the elevators, right?
After all, you still need to brush your way past the dozens of people waiting in line and pushing their ways through like they were Bill Gates running a multi-billion company that they couldn't wait for another minute, so, what's the point?

Anyway, my point is, what is the point of having a fire drill where in real times of emergency, you still panic and run away immediately, right?
Do you still follow the procedures and remember the right emergency exit?
Will you leave everything behind and get out of the building as soon as possible?

I doubt...but oh well, for education purpose, it serves well, in guiding them to the right exit and not barging through everywhere...

As for me, ain't I just lucky to be able to be part of the troop who marched down from the 14th floor?
This is just one of my Lucky days, huh?