Secret War Journal[11 November 2013]
Recently, my friends and I have been encountering various forms of the fire alarm triggering. Be it for fire drill, false alarms and real fire.
Of course, there would be differences for each cases though there are similarities.
Fire Drill
Let's start with the case of a fire drill. It is what everyone would expect. When the fire alarm triggers off, everybody will switch off all their electrical appliances and evacuate in an orderly manner. No issues. All is calm.
Objectives of a Fire Drill
Before we carry on to what happened to the other two scenarios, let us explore the purpose of conducting fire drills for the public. Fire drills are executed to prevent people from panicking in the event of a real fire. In addition, it serves to educate people on the evacuation routes. Simply, fire drills aims to
Real Fire
Now let us consider what I heard happened during a fire breakout recently in an university.
On one occasion, the fire alarm triggered off. Students in the class was indifferent to the fire alarm ringing. Shortly after, there was an announcement informing the personnel in the vicinity there is not a drill and that there is a fire in the faculty. This, however, did not prompt a reaction from some of the students who listened to the announcement, only to return to their revision.
Some of us may not find such a situation shocking. Indeed, for them to remain so calm may be partly due to the fact that they deem it is unnecessary to evacuate as they are not in immediate danger. This could be because they felt that the fire is a small one and would not spread to their area. While it is not entirely wrong, it reveals a worry sign of complacency. Either they trust the system that someone would put out the fire or they really believed that it is unlikely that the fire would spread.
In a way, this proves the success of fire drills. Everyone is calm and not prone to panicking in an event a fire alarm rings. However, the question is now if it has worked too well? Is it an issue if no one actually reacts to the fire alarm? Does it defeat the purpose of having a fire alarm system?
False Alarms
Another plausible answer to why no one reacts to the fire alarm could be its drawbacks - human mischief and malfunction
Every alarm system is prone to human mischief. While measures are put in place to minimise them, it still occurs. Curious children may sound off the fire alarm; Accidentally activation of the fire alarm for whatever reasons.
Furthermore, no system is safe from errors. A detector may erroneously detect a 'fire' and triggers off the alarm where there is, in fact, no fire.
All these causes false alarms to occur. If this happens frequently enough, people would start to ignore the alarm being triggered off, brushing it aside as another false alarm. This is analogous to the story of the boy who cried wolf.
I am no exception. During breakfast with my friends, a fire alarm was triggered off. Unfortunately, no one reacted to it. Despite hearing the ringing sound of the alarm, I did not feel any panic nor an urge to evacuate. I simply continued with my breakfast with my peers.
Somehow, over the course of my life, the ringing sound is not that jarring anymore and does not scream "FIRE" to me.
Looking around, I saw that no one responded to the alarm as well. After a few minutes, an announcement came, assuring the public that they are currently investigating if there is a fire. Immediately after, they found that it was just a false alarm.
Well, no harm done, I did not react to the alarm anyway.
Interestingly, no matter what the scenario, the results are somewhat similar, the affected people are calm.
Some would say the fire drills have achieved its purposes. No one is panicking.
However, is it just an illusion?
Most people do not respond because they are used to false alarms. Ask yourselves, how often do you encounter a fire in a building?
If they really saw the fire with their own eyes, I doubt they would be as calm as hearing the fire alarm. It is hard to stay calm in such an event, after all. In such cases, the fire drill failed.
Furthermore, if no one responded to the fire drill, is it yet not another failing of the fire drills since it also serves to bring everyone out of the danger area and to safety? If no one moves nor respond to the alarm, it defeats the purposes of having a fire alarm.
--
This is what our society is slowly turning into. People who are indifferent to alarms. This could be worrying.
"The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that man may become robots." - Erich Fromm
Recently, my friends and I have been encountering various forms of the fire alarm triggering. Be it for fire drill, false alarms and real fire.
Of course, there would be differences for each cases though there are similarities.
Fire Drill
Let's start with the case of a fire drill. It is what everyone would expect. When the fire alarm triggers off, everybody will switch off all their electrical appliances and evacuate in an orderly manner. No issues. All is calm.
Objectives of a Fire Drill
Before we carry on to what happened to the other two scenarios, let us explore the purpose of conducting fire drills for the public. Fire drills are executed to prevent people from panicking in the event of a real fire. In addition, it serves to educate people on the evacuation routes. Simply, fire drills aims to
- Prevent Panic and Chaos
- Inform public of evacuation routes
- Inform public of locations of fire hoses and extinguishers
- Minimise injuries in an event of a real fire
Real Fire
Now let us consider what I heard happened during a fire breakout recently in an university.
On one occasion, the fire alarm triggered off. Students in the class was indifferent to the fire alarm ringing. Shortly after, there was an announcement informing the personnel in the vicinity there is not a drill and that there is a fire in the faculty. This, however, did not prompt a reaction from some of the students who listened to the announcement, only to return to their revision.
Some of us may not find such a situation shocking. Indeed, for them to remain so calm may be partly due to the fact that they deem it is unnecessary to evacuate as they are not in immediate danger. This could be because they felt that the fire is a small one and would not spread to their area. While it is not entirely wrong, it reveals a worry sign of complacency. Either they trust the system that someone would put out the fire or they really believed that it is unlikely that the fire would spread.
False Alarms
Another plausible answer to why no one reacts to the fire alarm could be its drawbacks - human mischief and malfunction
Every alarm system is prone to human mischief. While measures are put in place to minimise them, it still occurs. Curious children may sound off the fire alarm; Accidentally activation of the fire alarm for whatever reasons.
Furthermore, no system is safe from errors. A detector may erroneously detect a 'fire' and triggers off the alarm where there is, in fact, no fire.
All these causes false alarms to occur. If this happens frequently enough, people would start to ignore the alarm being triggered off, brushing it aside as another false alarm. This is analogous to the story of the boy who cried wolf.
I am no exception. During breakfast with my friends, a fire alarm was triggered off. Unfortunately, no one reacted to it. Despite hearing the ringing sound of the alarm, I did not feel any panic nor an urge to evacuate. I simply continued with my breakfast with my peers.
Somehow, over the course of my life, the ringing sound is not that jarring anymore and does not scream "FIRE" to me.
Looking around, I saw that no one responded to the alarm as well. After a few minutes, an announcement came, assuring the public that they are currently investigating if there is a fire. Immediately after, they found that it was just a false alarm.
Well, no harm done, I did not react to the alarm anyway.
Interestingly, no matter what the scenario, the results are somewhat similar, the affected people are calm.
Some would say the fire drills have achieved its purposes. No one is panicking.
However, is it just an illusion?
Most people do not respond because they are used to false alarms. Ask yourselves, how often do you encounter a fire in a building?
If they really saw the fire with their own eyes, I doubt they would be as calm as hearing the fire alarm. It is hard to stay calm in such an event, after all. In such cases, the fire drill failed.
Furthermore, if no one responded to the fire drill, is it yet not another failing of the fire drills since it also serves to bring everyone out of the danger area and to safety? If no one moves nor respond to the alarm, it defeats the purposes of having a fire alarm.
--
This is what our society is slowly turning into. People who are indifferent to alarms. This could be worrying.
"The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that man may become robots." - Erich Fromm
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