Yesterday morning, as I was cramming for my upcoming Animal Biology exam, the fire alarms at the university went off, first the siren rang, the flashers flashed and then in an authoritative male voice, I was told that 'AN EMERGENCY HAS OCCURRED PLEASE EXIT THE BUILDING. DO NOT TAKE THE ELEVATORS.' Given the terror that has happened at US colleges in the past few years, I was unsure how to procede. I quietly gathered my things and headed for the nearest stairway, only to discover that it was locked due to the construction on campus this semester. As I searched for a way out of the building I found that there was only one exit avaliable, a new set of stairs away from the classrooms, that most students were still unaware of. The stairs were large enough, surely, to allow for the exit of numerous students, should they be able to locate them. Then my phone rang. My younger sister, a freshman this year, couldn't find her way out and was standing in a bathroom away from the crowd so she didn't get swept up. I'm sure she's not the only one who was feeling a little anxiety. I told her it was probably just a drill and gave her directions to the stairway and instructions to meet me outside the building. When I found her she gave me a big hug, stepped back a bit embarassed and said quietly 'That was a little scary.' we watched as a crew of firefighters filed into the building carrying axes and sledgehammers. Not knowing what was going on we walked 5 blocks away from campus to a coffee shop and waited there for a while. After about an hour the fire trucks and police cars drove away and upon our return to campus we were assured that it was just a drill.
Now. What if it wasn't a drill? In the event of a real emergency, the fact that there was only one way to exit the building would be disasterous, especially for a large university that serves a 10,000+ population. That's a lot of poeple to evacuate!
Do other universities have this problem? The stairway issue was only in one building, but it is the largest, most commonly used building on campus.
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Oh My God, they can't do that! You should let someone in your school knows what's going on. I would be panic to death. Maybe even jump out of the window in a case of real fire. It's really dangerous. The staircases shouldn't be locked at all. You know, I actually enjoy walking up the stairs. I get to exercise and wake myself up too. But anyway, great point! You should definitely do something about it.
THANK YOU! I brought the issue up with campus police and was told that hundreds of studencts have complained. (Complained! As if dying in a fire was not a big deal?!) They assured me that the school was working with the construction team to fix the problem. I am still waiting for the school to issue a statement.