Smoke From a Distant Fire
Last week, on Wicked Obsession's book birthday, I was at work. Late in the afternoon, about 35 minutes before I'm supposed to go home, I'm in the next aisle of cubes talking to a couple of my guys. I jumped when the fire alarm went off. It's a shrill, obnoxious sound and some lights start flashing as well.
I head to my desk and grab a jacket and my purse. Not my car keys. (This is important later.) I also don't take my laptop, but it's just a fire drill. I should have time to logoff and put the computer in my bag to take home.
We evacuate and stand around outside waiting for the signal to return to work. In the morning, it had been freezing when I got to work, but now it's cool, but relatively comfortable.
I start getting antsy as it gets close to my time to go home. Traffic will be hideous if I'm stuck. Then the all-clear horn blows. Finally! This should give me enough time to use the restroom, logoff the laptop, and get out the door before gridlock.
As we're heading for the building, the fire alarm goes off again. Everyone freezes in place.
I'll save you the play-by-play here and cut to what was going on. We were completely uniformed until about the last ten minutes, so misinformation was rife.
The engine shop had a fire and a leak (we heard hydrogen) and the fire department was trying to remove the canister from the building. The fire department was concerned that a spark would make the thing explode and they wanted everyone out of the building in case it happened. Luckily, they were able to remove the thing without it blowing up.
We ended up standing outside for about 90 minutes. If I'd had my keys and laptop, I could have left on time because that was about the same time we were told we could go home. Of course, my keys were in my desk, and as I was working from home the next day, I needed my laptop. I couldn't leave.
By the time I got back to my desk, used the restroom, and got ready to leave, so had everyone else that was supposed to go home. Namely a full shift of mechanics. Waze showed red on the road in front of Tech Ops and people even tagged traffic at a standstill in our parking lot. I decided there was no point in sitting in my car, so I hung around work until the roads cleared. I ended up leaving about an hour and a half past my usual time. :-(
At least no one was hurt (as far as I know).
I head to my desk and grab a jacket and my purse. Not my car keys. (This is important later.) I also don't take my laptop, but it's just a fire drill. I should have time to logoff and put the computer in my bag to take home.
We evacuate and stand around outside waiting for the signal to return to work. In the morning, it had been freezing when I got to work, but now it's cool, but relatively comfortable.
I start getting antsy as it gets close to my time to go home. Traffic will be hideous if I'm stuck. Then the all-clear horn blows. Finally! This should give me enough time to use the restroom, logoff the laptop, and get out the door before gridlock.
As we're heading for the building, the fire alarm goes off again. Everyone freezes in place.
I'll save you the play-by-play here and cut to what was going on. We were completely uniformed until about the last ten minutes, so misinformation was rife.
The engine shop had a fire and a leak (we heard hydrogen) and the fire department was trying to remove the canister from the building. The fire department was concerned that a spark would make the thing explode and they wanted everyone out of the building in case it happened. Luckily, they were able to remove the thing without it blowing up.
We ended up standing outside for about 90 minutes. If I'd had my keys and laptop, I could have left on time because that was about the same time we were told we could go home. Of course, my keys were in my desk, and as I was working from home the next day, I needed my laptop. I couldn't leave.
By the time I got back to my desk, used the restroom, and got ready to leave, so had everyone else that was supposed to go home. Namely a full shift of mechanics. Waze showed red on the road in front of Tech Ops and people even tagged traffic at a standstill in our parking lot. I decided there was no point in sitting in my car, so I hung around work until the roads cleared. I ended up leaving about an hour and a half past my usual time. :-(
At least no one was hurt (as far as I know).
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