Honk! Honk! Honk! ………….. Honk! Honk! Honk! …………..
There’s no mistaking it. It’s the fire alarm.
Honk! Honk! Honk! ………….. Honk! Honk! Honk! …………..
I’m in a hotel in Portland, Oregon. I’m on the third floor. What do I do?
Fire in the Hotel
On a recent business trip, my sleep was interrupted by a blaring fire alarm. I managed to get my bearings, get dressed, and get down the stairs.
There was no smoke outside my door, so I assumed it was a flase alarm. Then I saw several families tumbling out of the building coughing and holding wet towels over their mouths. They collapsed on the grass, and I overheard them describing their ordeal. When they opened the doors of their rooms, they could barely see the other side of the hallway.
I walked around the other side of the building. Every room, imcluding mine, had the alarm horns activated, but only one also had flashing lights. It was this room that seemed to have the most activity surrounding it.
We would learn later that a small fire had indeed broken out in this room. I still don’t know what caused it. Someone grabbed a fire extinguisher to put out the flame. The extinguisher sprayed a dry chemical everywhere, which put out the flame but created a cloud of irritating dust. It was the dust that the families had mistaken for smoke particles. They were probably smart / lucky to have thought of using the wet towels.
What I wish I had done
Obviously, in the event of a real fire, get out of the building as quickly as possible. Take the stairs (not the elevator). Follow directions from the fire department.
However, if you don’t actually see flames or smoke, you might:
- Get dressed. I did, but there were a few folks wandering around with only towels wrapped around them, and it was a might nippy.
- Grab your roomkey. Not essential, but it will make it easier to get back in.
- Grab a sweater. It’s the middle of the night. It’s colder than it was during the day. Wearing what you were wearing at 5pm probably won’t cut it.
- Grab your car keys (if you have a car). It would have been great to be able to curl up and sleep in the back of my car until they sorted things out. There were no stores open at midnight in suburbia, so I walked around like a zombie until they cleared us to go back in.
- Don’t take big stuff with you — suitcases or computers or whatnot. It’ s not worth it. It can likely be replaced (you do have insurance, don’t you?).
Three engines came from the local fire department. They had good communication between themselves. Once the hotel managmeent got over their deer-in-the-headlights look, they did what they could, handing out extra towels to help folks stay warm and bottles of water. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
We laughed, we cried, we shared a moment…
The hotel was packed. There was a huge group there after a wedding. The bride, groom and wedding party were still all gussied up. A good story to tell future grandkids, I guess.
I felt worst for the families with small children. Clearly they had to yank the kids out of sleep and now they were sitting outside on the cold concrete or grass. Somehow, like kids tend to do, they were all coping.
In about an hour from the initial alarm, the fire captain explained what had happened. It took another 30 minutes for them to clean up the dry chemical enough to let most folks back into their rooms. After another hour, everyone could go back in.
The next day things were back to normal, except for a little residual white powder on the third-floor carpet. I hope I never go through another fire — whether real or false alarm, but if I do, I hope to be a little more prepared.
Image credit: Fellowship of the Rich on Flickr.
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