…don’t just choosing an exit at random, or even the most “logical” one. Instead, take a moment to consider the most likely exit everyone else is going to take, and then don’t take that one.

Otherwise, you’ll mindlessly find yourself standing idly in a stairwell with all your friends from your floor and every floor around you. The most out-of-the-way stairwell, on the other hand, will be virtually empty and you’ll be able to proceed directly to safety.

Another good tip to beat the crowd: don’t stand around listening to the full warning like everyone else. Once the first siren goes, move. You can listen to the message to its conclusion on your way to the not-necessarily-nearest stairwell.

Last tip: don’t just grab your camera, actually take pictures. That way when you blog about it later, you’ll be able to have some visual content to go with your typeset.

4 Responses To “When Involved In A Whole-Building Evacuation…”

1. Dan J   2008.08.19, 1:56 pm
   

   Any further details as to why you’d be pondering such action?

2. nhelder   2008.08.19, 4:04 pm
   

   I’m out in Boston right now for some Oracle SOA training (there will be a post with links to pictures and whatnot sometime next week; Boston is cool place, and I definitely am enjoying myself thus far), and on my first night I was performing my usual iron-out-the-suitcase-wrinkles ritual when all of a sudden lights started flashing and buzzers started going off.

   The automated message was a little vague, but made it clear that something had happened somewhere, and in a round-about way suggested an evacuation was in order (the system must have been trying to do floor-specific messages, but it really wasn’t clear if I was on a floor that should or shouldn’t evacuate).

   I considered grabbing the backpack and spending the time to pack everything valuable in there, but in the end decided to just grab my wallet, phone, and camera and head out.

   Without really thinking about it, I headed for the central staircase next to the main elevators and made it down all of about 3 floors (was on the 8th) before the downward flow came to a complete stop.

   People were generally pretty calm, but they were definitely spooked… we didn’t know if a fire had broken out or somebody phoned in a bomb threat or what. And my overly-imaginative mind couldn’t help but think how much fun this whole everyone-packed-in-the-stairwell situation would be if smoke/flames suddenly started working their way up from below. (On the other hand, if it was a bomb or tornado or something, we were probably stuck in the safest spot, as the stairwell walls consisted of a substantial amount of concrete.)

   The lot of us never did make it out of the hotel - after about 4 minutes in the stairwell (felt much longer), an announcement went out that the fire department had confirmed that there was indeed no fire, and that we could all go back to our rooms.

   So, all was well (probably just a kid pulling the fire alarm), but I couldn’t help but think that if it had been something real, the route I had instinctively chosen had to be about the least-optimal one available, and the resulting “evacuation considerations” made their way in to the post you see above. :-)

3. Raymond   2008.08.20, 3:11 pm
   

   I enjoy the part where the comment is longer than the blog post. That’s always my favorite.

   I hope the Oracle training was solid. I always wish that I could have gone to one of those.

4. nhelder   2008.08.21, 8:22 am
   

   I suspect the comment-longer-than-the-post “design pattern” will be a repeating one here: introduce the general topic in the post, keeping it fairly short and sweet, and then if the reader wants more they can head in to the comments and see the real ramble. ;-)

   Training has been pretty good so far. A little heavy on the BPEL, but there’s enough info on the other pieces of the “big picture” that I feel I’m still getting MP’s money’s worth.

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