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31 May 2005: Exercise This



A picture

Canada Water

The fire alarm went off at work recently, at a time when no drill had been announced. The automated announcement indicated that an alarm condition was being investigated. This went on for some time.

During this time, some were returning with tales that the announcement on other floors was along the lines of "get out of the building, you may die otherwise". We could see occupants from other floors gathering outside as the announcement continued to explain that an alarm condition was being investigated. This was followed by the noise of sirens as two fire engines pulled up alongside the building.

Perhaps the investigation team had been incinerated. Perhaps the building emergency centre had been evacuated and there was no-one left to change our announcement. Perhaps the fire fighters were going to break through the office window and carry us out heroically. We decided to sit it out and wait for orders.

There was no fire, of course, it was all just some big mistake. This is as exciting as my life gets.