Evacuation

This week is my first official week working full-time at the office. What is the worst nightmare of someone on crutches? FIRE. Sure enough, the alarms sound at 9:00 in the morning. My first reaction is fire DRILL. Nope, it's the real thing. Rumors immediately fly that it's either on the 19th or 7th floor. I'm on the 9th floor - apparently right in the middle. No problem - I'll simply ride the elevator to safety. No such luck. Elevators are locked down. That leaves the stairs as my only way out. Nine stories to go.

My co-workers grabbed my purse and shuffled me into the stairwell. A very nice gentleman let me budge into the stream of people coming from the eleven floors above the ninth. My journey was a slow one, but I made it all the way down. Two of my (male) co-workers offered to carry me down, but I wasn't sure that was such a good idea for the back either. They advised me if we encountered any smoke along the way that I would have no choice - they were picking me up!

Amazingly, most everyone who was above me in the stairwell stayed behind me - patiently trailing behind me without pushing, complaining or going around me. Some of the people, from the lower floors, who made it out first, were watching from across the street. They commented that there was a total mass of people (literally, about 100) who came out of the building behind me (whereas just a trickle before me). Impressive. People are kind - even during a potentially dangerous situation.

Once outside, we had to get away from the building and used kleenex (lots of it) to wipe down a bench for me to sit (it had rained earlier, but luckily had stopped). The fire was on the 7th floor (not the 19th as had been rumored), but was easily extinguished. I guess it was caused by an air conditioning unit motor that had burned out. We were cleared to re-enter the building after about 50 minutes. Back up to 9th floor...on the elevator!!

The local newspaper was out taking pictures of the event and there was a brief story on their website (http://www.journalstar.com/news/local/doc4a65d9b92deb7545428495.txt).