Defeating the Purpose

[elSicomoro]

Every few months or so, we have a fire drill at our office building. The alarm sounds, we all head outside, and get a free 10 minute break. I'm on the 2nd floor, so it's not like I'm breaking a sweat or anything to get downstairs.

But here's my issue with it--they announce the fire drills. That is, when you come into the building on the day of said drill, there will be a big sign in the lobby saying "Fire Drill today at 10am." And when the alarm goes off, everyone is pretty lax about it...some people don't even go outside. In all the time I've worked down there, all the drills have been planned.

I could see doing something like this every now and then--having a planned drill. But to me, the whole purpose of a fire drill is to make sure people are ready in the event that a real fire occurs. No one knows when a fire may occur, so you always have to be ready. A good fire drill should catch you off guard, and can be a good gauge of how ready people really are.

If all we have are planned drills, there's a real possibility that when a real fire does occur, people won't take it seriously, and tragedy could result. Now granted, the same thing could happen as a result of having unplanned drills as well, but I would say that the former is more likely to occur than the latter. And many people will probably remember if they saw that drill sign or not. But many others will not--the sign sits in front of the Market St. entrance, but there is also an entrance on 4th St.

In the aftermath of 9/11, I am more cautious about being in a tall building. I know where all the exits are, the quickest way out, etc. And when we move to the 27th floor at 16th and Market in September, you can be damned sure I'll case that place real quick. Maybe I'm just more cautious than most, but when some crazy shit goes down, I want to be as prepared as possible to handle the situation. And having nothing but planned drills is a poor exercise in preparation, IMO.