Preparedness.

After September 11, I developed the habit of checking for the location of emergency exits in every plane, hotel, and movie theater I went to immediately upon settling in, and of counting the number of doors/seat rows between it and myself.

I then was thoroughly chagrined to realize today, after several months of moving into my new place, that while I know where the stairwells are, I have no idea where they lead (I've stayed/worked in buildings where the stairs do NOT always lead to the ground floor), nor where the fire alarms are.

So just now I got up from my computer, put my shoes on and walked all the way down one fire stairwell, checked to see where it opened onto, then circled around and came back up through a second. Along the way, I had the following thoughts: "Hey, there's a fire alarm pull here? And HERE? And we have fire extinguishers over here? How on earth did I not know that?"

I found out the stairwells do go all the way down. One goes to a door I've passed zillions of times but never noticed. I cannot reach any neighboring window from my own. The little metal bar for breaking the glass over the extinguisher hangs on the right side of the box, painted to match the wall; it's hard to spot but it's there. The chain that holds it is sometimes stuck to the box side with aforementioned paint (but it comes away easily). The doors to the roof are LOCKED. In case of emergency, that is not the way to go.

Well, now I know.

As you've probably guessed, the wake-up call was the water landing of Flight 1549. So many times it takes a tragedy to make us realize things, but I'm so very happy that this time it was a non-tragic one.

So if you've sussed your place out already, good for you. If you haven't, go. Put on your shoes and do it now. Even if it's dark, or raining, or snowing outside. Especially if it is. Where do the stairs in your workplace lead? Can you get out of your 2nd-story bedroom window? When's the last time the extinguishers were inspected? If your region's prone to storms/earthquakes/etc., where do you go?

I didn't want to do it just now; I was tired and distracted and in the middle of updating some files. But better to do it tired and distracted than tired and distracted and in an emergency.

Preparedness.

After September 11, I developed the habit of checking for the location of emergency exits in every plane, hotel, and movie theater I went to immediately upon settling in, and of counting the number of doors/seat rows between it and myself.

I then was thoroughly chagrined to realize today, after several months of moving into my new place, that while I know where the stairwells are, I have no idea where they lead (I've stayed/worked in buildings where the stairs do NOT always lead to the ground floor), nor where the fire alarms are.

So just now I got up from my computer, put my shoes on and walked all the way down one fire stairwell, checked to see where it opened onto, then circled around and came back up through a second. Along the way, I had the following thoughts: "Hey, there's a fire alarm pull here? And HERE? And we have fire extinguishers over here? How on earth did I not know that?"

I found out the stairwells do go all the way down. One goes to a door I've passed zillions of times but never noticed. I cannot reach any neighboring window from my own. The little metal bar for breaking the glass over the extinguisher hangs on the right side of the box, painted to match the wall; it's hard to spot but it's there. The chain that holds it is sometimes stuck to the box side with aforementioned paint (but it comes away easily). The doors to the roof are LOCKED. In case of emergency, that is not the way to go.

Well, now I know.

As you've probably guessed, the wake-up call was the water landing of Flight 1549. So many times it takes a tragedy to make us realize things, but I'm so very happy that this time it was a non-tragic one.

So if you've sussed your place out already, good for you. If you haven't, go. Put on your shoes and do it now. Even if it's dark, or raining, or snowing outside. Especially if it is. Where do the stairs in your workplace lead? Can you get out of your 2nd-story bedroom window? When's the last time the extinguishers were inspected? If your region's prone to storms/earthquakes/etc., where do you go?

I didn't want to do it just now; I was tired and distracted and in the middle of updating some files. But better to do it tired and distracted than tired and distracted and in an emergency.