Tuesday morning I was at a client in Muntinlupa and at 10am the fire alarm suddenly rang and the lights went out. Real fire? Fire drill? The bosses stayed on their laptops. But all the employees filed out. I filed out too… 10th floor. It was also an earthquake drill. Good thing I had my computer bag as the wads of newspapers representing rocks rained down at us as we exited the building.
Then came the fire truck, the ambulance, and there was a simulated rescue with actual use of the allegedly only fire truck with retracting ladder in the Philippines today. Lucky fire drill, I was able to take a picture.
Then the fire department personnel gave a lecture and hands on demo of the use of fire extinguishers. Great for me, I like that stuff, free practice to boot.
Found out that the small bonfire of leaves with gasoline sure burns hot and bright. Can’t get near that thing. Imagine if there was a real fire in your building… ouch!
There were different types of fire extinguishers, some had powder, some had liquid, there were big fire extinguishers that you rolled… takes two people to operate.
What was more significant were the failure rates of the fire extinguishers. I must have counted 6 failed fire extinguishers during the demo. Were these fire extinguishers in the building? Or did the fire men bring them along? I find 6 failures out of a little more than a dozen seemed uncomfortably large.
The lesson here is to hedge your bets with fire extinguishers. Do not be dependent on one supplier of fire extinguishers. You pay for some extinguishers from your local fire department… those that last for 1 year. And you buy from more expensive suppliers that are warranted for 5 years.
The fire drill was fun. It did cost us some down time. But, that’s life.
Summer is officially here and now in the Philippines, watch out for fires, take extra conscious care!
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Yes, we have several fire extinguishers at home, big and small. You never know when you may need them. I’ve used a fire extinguisher before in a real fire. One day our old office sign board caught fire. While the employees were panicking, I calmly grabbed a fire extinguisher and put out that fire. Back to work, people, nothing to see here.