August 5, 2004
Formal Plans for High Rise Evacuations Still Don't Exist
Fire drills where everybody just sits at their desk or stands around in the elevator lobby just aren't goint to cut it anymore. By the end of September, owners of high-rises in the city must not only have plans for evacuation, but also run actual drills to make sure everyone can move to safety in the event of a large fire or attack. Well, sort of.
Actually, the drills only have to cover "invacuations," which means you just move to another floor instead of exiting the building. Wait a second...wasn't that part of the problem on 9/11? The evacuation signals at first were only directed at certain floors, and so people figured they were safe where they were -- which led to disastrous consquences.
I don't know about you, but anytime I'm in a building -- especially a tall one -- and the alarm goes off, I just get up and leave. I'm not sure how well it would work if everyone did that, but I'm not going to sit around and wait for either a crowd or a security guard to tell me what to do.
Some experts agree with me on this one: Vincent Dunn, a retired fire chief and "authority on high-rise fire safety," told the NYT: "On 9/11, the people who did not follow instructions to stay put were the ones who survived. The people who followed the instructions did not survive."
Source: NYT
categories:
Safety,
Terrorism
posted by adm at August 5, 2004 4:27 AM
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