Esk

…will be the Cambrian News Headline. On Abnib? Click the title to read more…

There was a fire in old college today whilst I was at work. It was small, and in the substation, apparently. What amused me most was how seriously it wasn’t taken.
You know how, when there’s a drill, you’ve got to all get out as fast as possible in an orderly fashion? Well, my coworker and I sat for about a minute listening to the alarm before finally deciding it wasn’t on test and we’d have to move. We then picked up our coats and bags and left via the main entrance, which was by no means the nearest exit from our room.

We came across a large group of people being herded towards the castle by employees in fluorescent jackets (let’s call them ’stewards’). We followed. My coworker commented “They could have picked a warmer day for it!” Standing around in the cold December air was not how I had planned to spend my afternoon. It was approaching our tea time (4pm) and I was looking forward to a nice warm cuppa. At no point had anyone asked our names, let alone attempted any sort of roll call (perhaps academic buildings don’t have the same rules as residential ones?)

Waiting around for about half an hour, my boss came over to fill us in on where the fire was (roughly underneath the Welsh Department). By this point the fire engines had arrived. He said “I thought it was warm in the department today!” Eventually he decided that it was too long to wait around, and that we should go and have a cup of tea and return later to lock up.

But then… The stewards decided that the building would probably have to be shut for the day, so could everyone please go in and get their stuff, and come straight out. They did send us in in groups, each with a steward on the way in who left as soon as we’d got to our rooms, departing with the stern admonition “go straight out again”. On leaving old college, I said to the steward at the door “Is it alright if I go home, then?” To which he replied “Yeah, it’s probably going to be shut anyway” Sort of missing the point I was making about fire safety and thinking I was worried about missing a half-day of work. I told him that I was going home, and did so.

Get out, get the fire brigade out, stay out? More like: “Get out at your convenience, wait for the fire brigade, go back in for your stuff.”

Just to clarify, I don’t think anything that happened was actually unsafe, in fact I think they probably did the most sensible thing balancing convenience against a very small risk, but it seems a far cry from all the scary 999 documentaries and the london’s burning episodes, not to mention those talks you got when you were at primary school about how if you don’t have a smoke alarm everyone in your family is going to die tomorrow.

This afternoon was a very British approach to a crisis. I don’t think a single person was worried about more than their cold fingers and locking their office door against thieves. My boss did ask if we had backed up the only copy of the welsh genealogies dating back to 300AD which resides… somewhere in old college. Of course we have. I’m just glad I don’t have to test that theory.