What's Your Craziest Example of Dumb Citizens? The Modern Evacuation -- Take Some Video, Get Your Hand Stamped

Our friends over at STATter911 have a great story along with video and photos from a fire today at the Detroit Auto Show.

During the "evacuation" (if you want to call it that) folks took their leisurely time to exit the building despite the smoke and arriving firefighters -- taking photos, videos, and yes even getting their hand stamped INSIDE the building before they left so that they could get back in. Some pretty wacky stuff.

Which leads us to the question of the day -- Besides commenting on the this story, what are some crazy things you've seen where Joe Citizen has failed to exit rapidly in times of emergency, before you've arrived or while you're there trying to help them escape.

Watch the video...especially towards the end where you can see the hand stamping, and for more read the full story at STATter911.



Post your war stories here ...

Views: 246

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Kali, as usual you make a good point. However, as John mentions above, if "Joe Public" reads this and takes offense, maybe just maybe he'll think twice the next time he's in a situation like the ones outlined in this post. Even if it saves only one life it's well worth it. Stay safe!
It's crazy! However, I was at Walmart one night and the fire alarms started going off and nobody even batted an eye. They continued shopping as though nothing was going on. There wasn't even an announcement made over the intercom as to wheather it was a false alarm or if people needed to evacuate the building.
That's Muncie for ya!!!
Kali.. I would worry too much about John and Jane Q. taking offense at being called "dumb citizens".. because in their eyes, they are smart and the next guy is dumber than a rock
Had a working alarm at the local Racino. People didn't want to leave. Security didn't want to help and people keep crying about getting back in. We had to call for fire & state police to help with crowd control. Those old ladies are the worse.
That doesn't surprise me. I heard that after the MGM fire in Las Vegas years ago, some people were burned to the slot machines because they just wouldn't leave! Stay safe!
I would say any large event has problems trying to get a large crowd to leave a large building. I have been at a few conventions and something set the alarm system off and it takes time to get people out.
I was working one show on attendee management service and someone pulled the alarm because they were mad about something twice and was caught on video. One room being used by the show had the door frame broken off by a attendee or group leaving the room. The building was fairly new and it took alot of force to break the door and the frame and it was someone being stupid.
At another event there was two events using the same building and someone's kid pulled the alarm system on the otherside of the building.
We had a staff member at one event just playing around pull the alarm by accident while other staff members were standing there and witnessed what he did. He was suspended by the event and turned over to the responding fire crew for that punishment.
One time our fire company leadership wanted to have a officers meeting away from the station so they reserved a meeting room at a hotel to have the meeting. While we were there the voice alarm system was telling the people to leave the building, well we are asking the front desk where the alarm panel is so we could help check for the location of the alarm. Well the maintenance man had it in the maintenance room next to where we were meeting. It was a smoke alarm in a room. The chief and few officers went up to the room. The person in that room had been using the shower with the door open and the steam floated out to the detector and set off the system. When the group got there the person was trying to fan the detector to stop to the alarm system.
The large automotive company I used to work for was the same except we didn't get paid by the piece, management just wouldn't shut down the machines unless the fire was threatening our area of the building. By the way, this company is also based in Detroit.
Cap, in that company was there an emergency response team at all? We have the same deal with several paper mills here and the mill is not evacuted, even with real fires, but the employees are also versed in what to do in an emergency. There are also ERT teams that will respond to attempt to mitigate the incident while FD responds.

In these cases I don't have the same view as I do in a public building or even apartment type of complex with the activation of an alarm. Factory workers should have some type of plan and response in place, I believe this could be an OSHA type of requirement. The general public, in a public building is a whole other matter. The person refusing to leave their apartment/complex is another matter.
The same type of people who crush a man to death for the Black Friday sale?

In all actuality many people don't even care about the emergency, all they see is us as inconviencing their lives, whether it is waiting in traffic because a lane is closed or walking an extra 12 feet over.....we are impeding on their lives, how dare we?
Just how many "average citizens" with no fire department involvement take the time to sing-up for Firefighter Nation and read our forums? As "outsiders," which is to say Non-Firefighters/EMS folk, most would have trouble following a typical thread on FFN. We use a lot of jargon, acronyms and other vocabulary unique to our sub-culture which the "average Joe" would not understand.

If an average, non-Firefighter/EMS citizen did take the time to join FFN, and get past the pictures of BRTS, whacker-mobiles and half-dressed Firefighter groupies, then they probably are not the human lemurs the writer was referring to. Frankly, if we suddenly had a rush of "average citizens" taking so much interest in Firefighting and fire safety, I think we would all applaud their interest.

Greenman
29CFR part 1910.38 requires a Emergency Action Plan in writing, and available for employee review, for employers with 10 or more employees, it may be communicated orally if there are nine or fewer employees.

Greenman
In Korea, on a U.S. Army Base, we had steam-activated alarms in dorm rooms two or three times a week for a while. I saw several instance where after it happened as few times, Soldiers would put their ear plugs in and continue as though nothing was happening...to the point that nobody would even call the Fire department and the alarm would go off for an hour or more, until someone called the FD and they reset the alarm.

Familiarity breeds contempt, and frequent false alarms cause people to treat the alarm with contempt.

At Fort Huachuca we once had a whole barracks evacuated for a gas leak, which turned out that a Soldier was unlawfully using a propane camping stove in his room and the cheap stove he had was leaking propane when the stove was OFF. Later found out there was no gas service to the building at all, everything was electric!

Greenman

Reply to Discussion

RSS

Find Members Fast


Or Name, Dept, Keyword
Invite Your Friends
Not a Member? Join Now

© 2024   Created by Firefighter Nation WebChief.   Powered by

Badges  |  Contact Firefighter Nation  |  Terms of Service