We didn't start it
Apparently, the AC unit did - no human intervention required
{You know you are a blogger when after power has been restored and you've checked your email, your secondary instinct is to blog about the day's little big event}
Prologue
We'll be having a "fire drill" on Thursday at 3 pm, went the email. Please don't panic, just stay in your seats.
Irony
It's 11:00 a.m. and I'm just returning from a quick trip to the hostel (these days, I'm here from 8:00 a.m.). Having met Prajakta on the way, we're in the elevator when the fire alarm goes off.
"Is that the fire drill? Could be. But wasn't that in the afternoon? Can't remember. It could even be the real thing, you never know :-)". Usually it never is the real thing.
As you have probably guessed, this time it was.
An A/C unit burnt down in the lab adjacent to mine and apparently had flames doing a jing-bang scaring the hell out of the occupants. They rushed about getting the nearest fire extinguishers but the hitch was: none of us knew how to use them.
Soon help arrived - the fire remained localised and spraying began. It wasn't very organised, but it was fairly effective. The news, which till now was a 2nd floor thing, had now spread to the other areas of the large KReSIT building, on the wings of the dense black smoke that had begun to billow.
It was then that we thought about the sleepers.
There are a few people who sleep in the labs after a nocturnal work effort. I knew there was no one sleeping in my lab and cast my mind to the only other lab which would still have the dozers. Consequently, we wondered where Tejaswi and Jatin were. No responses to calling them on their cell phones pretty much meant they were still blissfully in the Land of Nod. and perhaps the smoke had transmogrified into a theatrical special effect in their panavision dreams. Ashish and others rushed in to wake them. By now, the smoke was thick and visibility was in the nether regions of the measure. They emerged half-sleep, with the T-man under the impression that this was a rather enthusiastic and realistic dress rehearsal of sorts. It could have been worse than all that :-) It was a feeling most KReSITians had shared - the irony of the fire breaking out the same day as the planned & sanitised drill was not missed.
Damage
The smoke had now enveloped the atrium, so we unhurriedly left the building and milled around waiting to see what would happen next. The tales of "where were you when" had already begun to hit the radiowaves - like how some weren't ready to cut short their meeting for some lowly event like this and a prof.'s priceless "it hasn't reached the door (to his office) yet, has it?" and got on with work. Very Brit-like :-)
The security guys and the firefighters got things under control - fortunately, the fire had not spread to other parts and was soon brought under control, so a lot of appreciation for those guys. The damage was not very much - the AC unit had melted like some hot fondue, and there was a thick layer of soot & dust all over, including adjacent labs like that of mine. More importantly, no one seemed to be hurt so that was a blessing. It took a couple of hours for some quick cleaning and reorg, and things were back to normal (or close to it) after that. It could have been worse, but we were in good cheers that it hadn't been.
{Minor personal damage: the diyaa i had bought from charity on Monday lay broken on the floor - someone in their legitimate haste to open windows in the lab must have inadvertently knocked it down.}
And later
This is the part you want to fix, right? After one horse has bolted, you do want to put the additional padlock on the stable doors. In a lot of places, including here, fire alarms go off so frequently as part of testing that our ears just don't accord it any respect any more. The next steps are obvious: we need to learn how to use firefighting equipment around the place, learn how to evacuate, how to administer basic first aid and perhaps take a closer look at all the AC circuits again, for apparently this isn't the first time this has happened with those units.
And no more mails asking us not to do anything when the alarm goes off, even and especially if it's only a drill.
{You know you are a blogger when after power has been restored and you've checked your email, your secondary instinct is to blog about the day's little big event}
Prologue
We'll be having a "fire drill" on Thursday at 3 pm, went the email. Please don't panic, just stay in your seats.
Irony
It's 11:00 a.m. and I'm just returning from a quick trip to the hostel (these days, I'm here from 8:00 a.m.). Having met Prajakta on the way, we're in the elevator when the fire alarm goes off.
"Is that the fire drill? Could be. But wasn't that in the afternoon? Can't remember. It could even be the real thing, you never know :-)". Usually it never is the real thing.
As you have probably guessed, this time it was.
An A/C unit burnt down in the lab adjacent to mine and apparently had flames doing a jing-bang scaring the hell out of the occupants. They rushed about getting the nearest fire extinguishers but the hitch was: none of us knew how to use them.
Soon help arrived - the fire remained localised and spraying began. It wasn't very organised, but it was fairly effective. The news, which till now was a 2nd floor thing, had now spread to the other areas of the large KReSIT building, on the wings of the dense black smoke that had begun to billow.
It was then that we thought about the sleepers.
There are a few people who sleep in the labs after a nocturnal work effort. I knew there was no one sleeping in my lab and cast my mind to the only other lab which would still have the dozers. Consequently, we wondered where Tejaswi and Jatin were. No responses to calling them on their cell phones pretty much meant they were still blissfully in the Land of Nod. and perhaps the smoke had transmogrified into a theatrical special effect in their panavision dreams. Ashish and others rushed in to wake them. By now, the smoke was thick and visibility was in the nether regions of the measure. They emerged half-sleep, with the T-man under the impression that this was a rather enthusiastic and realistic dress rehearsal of sorts. It could have been worse than all that :-) It was a feeling most KReSITians had shared - the irony of the fire breaking out the same day as the planned & sanitised drill was not missed.
Damage
The smoke had now enveloped the atrium, so we unhurriedly left the building and milled around waiting to see what would happen next. The tales of "where were you when" had already begun to hit the radiowaves - like how some weren't ready to cut short their meeting for some lowly event like this and a prof.'s priceless "it hasn't reached the door (to his office) yet, has it?" and got on with work. Very Brit-like :-)
The security guys and the firefighters got things under control - fortunately, the fire had not spread to other parts and was soon brought under control, so a lot of appreciation for those guys. The damage was not very much - the AC unit had melted like some hot fondue, and there was a thick layer of soot & dust all over, including adjacent labs like that of mine. More importantly, no one seemed to be hurt so that was a blessing. It took a couple of hours for some quick cleaning and reorg, and things were back to normal (or close to it) after that. It could have been worse, but we were in good cheers that it hadn't been.
{Minor personal damage: the diyaa i had bought from charity on Monday lay broken on the floor - someone in their legitimate haste to open windows in the lab must have inadvertently knocked it down.}
And later
This is the part you want to fix, right? After one horse has bolted, you do want to put the additional padlock on the stable doors. In a lot of places, including here, fire alarms go off so frequently as part of testing that our ears just don't accord it any respect any more. The next steps are obvious: we need to learn how to use firefighting equipment around the place, learn how to evacuate, how to administer basic first aid and perhaps take a closer look at all the AC circuits again, for apparently this isn't the first time this has happened with those units.
And no more mails asking us not to do anything when the alarm goes off, even and especially if it's only a drill.
